The Exciting Mundane Things She Loves About Mary
by NovaZeroZero
Summary: Kakegurui F/F, Mary/Ririka and minor Kirari/Sayaka. Well, how should I put this. Saotome Mary might be the ordinary thing that makes Momobami Ririka very extraordinary.
1. Chapter 1

"Friend?"

"Yes, _friend,_" Mary responded, sounding slightly irritated. She didn't necessarily mean to be rude or anything, but Ririka's unnecessary repeating of something that was a bit embarrassing for Mary to admit was making her feel agitated. Ririka had again found her after morning class and was following Mary through the corridors. This had become a regular habit, at first it started when the Student Council President had ordered the Vice President to accompany Mary, while the election went on. This too, had probably something to do with the fact that Mary had already turned down a seat in the Council once, and now they wanted to keep tabs on her. Now, Mary was quite sure Ririka was doing this out of her own quirkiness and social awkwardness.

The whole Momobami family was a mess of its own caliber. Mary was sure they were not from this planet. Not only because of the recent events at the school that included having their family disputes settled inside the school, while hindering with the other students' normal activities, but also just the strange things, like Ririka's creepy mask or the fact that the two sisters changed roles every now and then. Mary was quite adept at reading people, but when one is wearing a mask that covers the whole face, she was never sure if she was talking to the real Ririka and not Kirari just pulling of another stunt to mess with her head.

"Hmm… This is quite new to me, please tell me what I need to do for you, as your friend, Saotome-san," Ririka sounded formal as ever. She kept the mask on whenever they were in crowded places, Mary knew it to be pointless to argue about this but made sure she took the mask off if they were alone.

"Well, you could stop calling me 'Saotome-san' for starters, 'Mary' is just fine!"

"Well, Mary-san, is there something you'd like me to do as your friend?" Ririka kept asking, Mary was not sure if she was being serious about this or not. After thinking about it, she was quite sure this peculiar person had never had a real friend before.

"What do you mean? I don't need you to _do_ anything, it's a bit strange to have you following me around, though, maybe we could hang around after school and do something, like normal friends do," Mary pondered.

"So, you don't want me to follow you around in school?" She sounded a bit hurt.

"It's a bit creepy, that's all…" Mary noticed the other girl looking rather upset, "…but, I'd like to do something together after school today, my classes stop around 4pm, how about yours?" she tried to sound reassuring.

"I need to check with the student council, but I don't think we had anything planned for today, so it should be OK, Mary-san!" The expression on Ririka's face lightened up.

"So, it's a date! Let's meet up in the main hall after classes," the blonde said, with a huge smile on her face. She waved for goodbye and disappeared into a classroom.

Ririka was left standing in the corridor alone, staring at the blonde's back when she walked away.

"… a date?"

Ririka entered the almost empty student council room. Sayaka was sitting in front of the large table, going through some papers and only slightly acknowledged that someone had entered the room. She gave the Vice President a quick look and a nod before returning to her paperwork. Maybe it was because of the mask, Sayaka did not notice how flustered the Momobami twin was. Ririka knew Sayaka had a huge crush on her sister, actually everyone knew about it even if they did not say anything, this sometimes made Ririka feel very awkward around Sayaka, especially if they were in the council room alone like this.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Igarashi-san, but I need to ask you something, do you have a minute?" The Vice President asked timidly. Sayaka lifted her gaze from the papers.

"What is it, Vice President?" Sayaka was clearly annoyed. When it came to the Momobami sisters, she had little respect for the timid one, hiding behind the mask and being way too indecisive about anything.

"I've recently acquired a _friend_, and I would like to know what the appropriate course of action in this situation is," Ririka explained.

"A friend? You? Don't tell me it's that arrogant Saotome-san you've been hanging around lately?" Sayaka sneered. She could not hide her amusement, nor could she see the malicious expression on the Vice President's face when she called Mary 'arrogant'.

"Well, as a matter of fact, yes, Mary-san is my friend and I don't think you have a right to call her 'arrogant', _Igarashi-san_" the cold decisive voice startled Sayaka and sent chills down her spine.

"Ahem, I apologize for my disrespectful tone, what was it that you wanted to ask?" Sayaka tried to correct her behavior, she did not want to start a war with _any_ Momobami, fully knowing it'd not turn out well for herself if she did.

"What kind of things are we supposed to do now that we are friends? She wants to do something today after school, but I have no idea what she would like to do," the Vice President's tone was a lot friendlier again.

"Well, I don't really have time for friends so I can't say that I'm the expert of this but I guess the kids these days go the movies, eat out at low-key restaurants, go to each other's houses to play games or study," Sayaka listed out some things, looked rather puzzled while trying to think activities.

"I haven't really been to the movies or eaten out much, I wouldn't know any good places, do you know any?" Ririka was panicking. She was convinced she wouldn't know what to do with Mary.

"Well, just take her to your place for dinner then, I know the President will be busy with all _this_ for the evening so she's not coming home to eat anyway," Sayaka said, pointing the pile of paper she had in front of her and sounding a bit more excited than what was appropriate.

"Right, I could do that… Thank you, Igarashi-san!"

"I apologize again for being rude, hopefully you have a good time with Saotome-san," Sayaka said politely.

"Oh… one more thing. She said, _'It's a date'_, does that mean like, a _romantic_ date?" Ririka was blushing heavily under the mask.

"Oh, wow, uh- she specifically asked you out _on a date?_" Sayaka felt a bit jealous, for obvious reasons.

"No… Well… I'm not sure… Maybe?" Ririka tried to remember if this was implied, she had felt so nervous in the moment that she was not sure what had happened exactly.

"If you agreed to go on a date, then maybe asking her to come over to your house is not the best idea, might send some _really romantic _implied signals," Sayaka said, wondering what the Vice President actually wanted out of all this. "But if that's how you feel for Saotome-san, I can _definitely_ keep your sister busy here, so you have the house to yourselves! You would owe me one favor in return, of course."

Ririka felt her heart thumping out of her chest. Was this what she really wanted with Mary or was this just Sayaka's own obsessions messing with her head. Of course, _Sayaka_ would jump to this conclusion in a matter of seconds. Mary had been blushing over the whole friend-thing when it happened, what did that mean back then? If there was someone special in Ririka's life, that person would unquestionably be Saotome Mary.

"Uhm… Keep my sister busy here, please, just in case."

Ririka stormed out of the room, she was feeling so nervous that it made her stomach turn. She decided to go see the school nurse and skip the afternoon's classes.

Ririka was waiting in the main hall, she had skipped all the classes that afternoon, nervously paced around trying to calm herself. She had tried to go back to the council room, but Sayaka drove her out when the pacing around got on her nerves. She was getting anxious, she already knew which class Mary had, she double-checked this in the council room earlier, she restrained herself from going outside the classroom to wait because they had agreed to meet in the main hall.

Students started to fill the halls when the classes ended. Soon, Mary too appeared, walking towards the main hall with Suzui and Yumeko. Ririka was wondering if Mary had plans to go out with Suzui and Yumeko too, she would feel very uncomfortable around so many people if they were to join.

"Ok, guys, see you tomorrow!" Mary said to her friends and they parted ways in the middle of the main hall. Yumeko flashed the Vice President a big smile and waved, Ririka gave a shy wave back. Mary approached the girl who had been waiting for her, also looking a bit nervous.

"Have you been waiting for me long, Ririka? Yumeko kept trying to get me to do some afterschool gambling," Mary said, she always felt a bit weird when she was talking to Ririka while she was wearing the mask. She didn't know where she was supposed to be looking at. Ririka was blushing under the mask, heavily, because Mary called her by her name. "…oh, right. Manners. Can I call you Ririka?"

"Y-yes, of course," Ririka replied with a small voice.

"So shall we go, then? I usually take the train to the city, but we can stay around the campus too if you'd like." Mary said while gesturing that they should start walking towards the doors.

"We can take the car too, it's no problem. Just let me know where you would like to go," Ririka said, referring to their family's town cars with personal drivers, each of the sisters had their own, waiting in the school parking lot.

"Oh, right. Fancy. Sure, let's take the car." Mary kept staring at the ground while walking. Her own background was not wealthy at all, she only got into the school with a scholarship and struggled financially during her first year. She managed to win enough by gambling to survive in the school where most of the students came from rich families. She was not ashamed of her family but had been accustomed to the fact that the students from rich families had no concept of reality when it came to the actual value of the money they were so eager to gamble away.

Ririka noticed how the blonde seemed a bit absent while walking to the parking lot. She decided not to pry too much. The driver apparently spotted Ririka approaching and drove closer with the black sedan. The driver stepped out and came out to open the doors, he had pilot sunglasses on, but Mary could swear she felt the long stare on her as Ririka probably never had company.

"Here you go, Momobami-sama," the driver said politely while opening the back door. "Your friend will be joining us today?"

"Yes, she will. We are not going home yet, where did you want to go first Mary-san?" Ririka turned and asked Mary.

"W-what… Right… I really don't have a preference but if it's up to me, then closer to the city, I guess." Mary said, she had been a bit lost in her thoughts for a few minutes. The two girls got inside the car, driver hurried to open the other door for Mary and startled her when he rushed past. She hadn't decided yet if she liked to be treated like this or not and was not sure how to react. "Thank you, sir."

Driver gave a kind smile, apparently he appreciated the small gestures. The car itself was lacking personality with everything covered in black leather with small chrome details. Mary kept looking out of the window, still spacing out and thinking if she could ever get used to this kind of lifestyle. The silence was starting to feel uncomfortable for Ririka, who tried to think of something to say. It was clear that the blonde had her thoughts occupied with something, Ririka was itching to know what was going through Mary's head. She was worried that Mary had changed her mind about being her friend. Moments kept passing and starting any conversation got stuck in Ririka's throat.

They drove ahead in silence and approached the centrum. Mary turned at one point to check up on the Vice President, when she noticed her restless fidgeting, Ririka was idly playing with the strap of her bag in her hands. She still had the mask on so whatever expression she had on her face was unreadable.

"Hey, uh, Ririka? Can you take off the mask, please?" Mary asked.

"Sorry, no." Ririka replied quietly.

"But the windows are darkened, and we are nowhere near the school anymore—"

"I'm sorry, Mary-san. I have specific instructions to wear it whenever I'm in the presence of our staff," Ririka said even more quietly.

"WHAT?! That's insane!" Mary shouted a bit more loudly than she intended. "What kind of a sick- oh, wait- I know where this-" she continued, rotating her head and looking out of the windows. "DRIVER! Please, stop the car!"

Driver glanced from the rear window, he looked for a good spot next to the sidewalk to park the car. Mary shot out of the car, barely missing traffic on her side, door slammed shut with a loud 'thump'. The driver was just getting up from the driver's seat.

"Sorry about the door, no need to get up, can you wait a bit?" Mary shouted, already pacing around the back of the car.

Ririka was on the back seat, speechless. She barely had time to react when Mary had already circled the car, pulled the door open and held out her hand to Ririka.

"Let's go! Now, please." Mary's frantic tone got Ririka to grab the hand without a second thought. "Thank you, uh, Mister Driver, no need to wait here, I'll make sure she gets home safe, bye!"

The driver looked puzzled; he was not sure what to do in this situation.

Mary started walking, still holding Ririka's hand and didn't stop before they were around the corner. Ririka's heart was racing, she barely had time to enjoy the blonde's decisive hand holding hers, she was more worried Mary would be angry at her. She obediently followed Mary, almost bumping into her when Mary suddenly stopped.

"OK, so, now, can you lose the mask, please?" Mary asked when the town car was not on sight anymore. She kept staring at the Vice President, her poker face was giving Ririka no implication of how she was feeling. Mary was still holding Ririka's hand, Ririka had her schoolbag in her other hand, with a split-second choice, she decided to drop the bag and remove the mask while still holding Mary's hand.

Ririka's face was flustered to say the least, her cheeks burned red and eyes were starting to water. This was not at all the start she would have hoped for the evening. She was aware of squeezing Mary's hand, tried to loosen the grip a bit but her muscles were not responding. Ririka was holding her breath and waiting for any reaction from the blonde staring intensely at her.

Mary squeezed her hand reassuringly, her expression cleared, and she even gave a small smile.

"A lot better, thanks! I know I said we'd go to the city, but I got a better idea when I saw the route the driver had chosen." Mary said, staring into the blue eyes that were hidden underneath the mask just a moment ago.

"S-so you're not mad at me?"

"Of course not! Why- Did you think I was mad?" Mary looked worried.

"Well, you didn't say anything in the car and I wanted to ask about it, but couldn't find the right words to ask without sounding too intrusive," Ririka hurried to explain how she had understood the situation.

"No need to be so coy with me, it's just me, Ririka." Mary flashed a grin and a faint tint of red was forming on her cheeks as well. "So, let's get going, it's still a bit of a walk from here. Don't forget your bag!"

Feeling awkwardly out of hands to use, Ririka was forced to let go of Mary's hand to pick up her bag and tuck her mask inside. Mary waited for the other girl to gather her things before gesturing the direction they were headed and started walking. Ririka walked slightly behind her, holding her schoolbag with two hands in front of her. Ririka remembered the lecture Mary had given her a while ago how she should start making her own decisions and decide what she wanted. She couldn't stop thinking how she'd like to hold Mary's hand, as they approached a cross road with a red traffic light for pedestrians she took a long breath before opening her mouth.

"Actually, Mary-san, I liked holding your hand back there. Would you mind if we did that for the rest of the walk?" Ririka tried her best to hide the nervousness in her tone. Mary was taken aback by this sudden suggestion.

"Eeh?! What's this all of a sudden? I guess it's OK, though…" Mary kept blushing and looking away, but held her hand out. Ririka gladly grabbed the hand and beamed. The light turned green and the girls crossed the street. Ririka had no idea where they were, she had never really been walking in strange places like this before. The buildings were tall, but there were not many big department stores around, just small shops and restaurants lining the streets.

"Ahem, so I guess I could tell you where we are going and why," Mary started, still holding Ririka's hand. "Since I know how awkward you get around people, I thought it'd be nicer to spend time with just the two of us. I'm very curious to say the least to know more about your uh- interesting family arrangements."

"Oh, like the deal with my mask?" Ririka caught the drift where the conversation was going.

"_Especially_ the mask, yes. And what's up with switching places with Kirari all the time? I mean, I get why you do it do get people off guard when you are gambling, but does it happen often, and did you practice this a lot when you were kids? Whose idea was it anyway? I have like a gazillion questions, sorry."

"No, it's OK, I can tell you when we're somewhere private, I promise. But on one condition," Ririka said, expecting Mary to ask what the condition was.

"Heh, of course there is a catch. So, what will it be?" Mary asked, slightly amused.

"I get to ask a question every time I answer one of yours," Ririka stated.

"Oh, sure! My life's not half as interesting as yours though…" The blonde was confused why someone would be interested to know more about her mundane things.

"I guess we'll see who wins! Can I start by asking where we are going?" The blue eyes lit up and Ririka was clearly in a better mood already.

"Right, I guess I didn't tell you yet. That doesn't have to count as a question because I already promised to tell you. My apartment is behind the corner here." Mary said, pointing at a building in front of them.

"Oh wow, I get to see Mary-san's apartment!" Ririka was genuinely excited now.

"It's really not special at all! I just thought you'd enjoy your time more in a quiet place," Mary said, blushing again.

"Thank you, Mary-san, for taking such good care of me, I don't know how I can thank you for this," Ririka squeezed Mary's hand tighter.

"Oh, come on, it's no big deal, really. Just don't tell anyone I'm this nice, it would ruin my reputation," Mary joked, feeling a bit awkward of this sudden recognition. She led the taller girl around the corner, and they stopped in front of a door with lots of call buttons. "Here we are, wait, I need to find my keys."

Mary let go of Ririka's hand and started rummaging the front pocket of her school bag. She pulled a small set of keys, chose a small bronze one and opened the door.

"Here we go, you first!" Mary said, holding the door open. "It's on the ninth floor but we can take the elevator."

Mary flicked on the lights in the hallway and called for the elevator.

"Oh, I have never been in a place like this!" Ririka was strangely enthusiastic.

"Well, figures why not, but really, there's nothing special about this place. It was cheap and quite close the school," Mary was waving her hand and belittling the apartment building.

"Don't say that! It's very special to me at least! Something I've never seen before!" Ririka wanted to add the fact that it was Mary Saotome's building what made it extra special but was too embarrassed to mention about it. The elevator made a small 'bling' noise when it came down and the doors opened. Mary pressed number 9 on the board and the doors closed. Neither said anything on the short way up.

On the 9th floor there were 8 doors, Mary walked to the far-left corner, door had a small metal sign on top that stated "906" as the apartment number. Ririka had a sudden flashback of seeing this number somewhere on Mary's personal sheet she had peeked once in the council room.

"Ok, here we are. Please make yourself at home, I'm going to make some tea for us!" Mary said as she flicked on the lights in the dim _genkan_ they just entered. She took of her shoes and dropped her schoolbag on the floor next to a small table. "I didn't have time to clean up properly, I wasn't really planning on having guests here, but I hope it's OK."

"Thank you for having me here, Mary-san. It's perfect, don't worry." Ririka said while removing her shoes.

She looked curiously around, in the small hallway was a door on the right to the bathroom, on the opposite wall the small table and a big mirror on top of it. The hallway opened to a small cozy room with a bed, coffee table and a TV on top of a small shelf. Small kitchen was on the right side, it had a small dining table with two chairs. The whole apartment was peaking Ririka's curiosity, she kept noticing small interesting details, family photos, small figurines and souvenirs on the shelves, a lot of books, DVDs, a few peculiar posters of abstractly resembling owls, a lot of small boxes filled with various small items such as a box full of hair ribbons. Ririka didn't even notice that she had been standing in the middle of the room. Mary emerged from the kitchen.

"You can sit down anywhere you'd like, we can drink the tea here or in the kitchen," Mary said, interrupting the curious girl.

"Here is fine, do you need any help?" Ririka asked.

"Sure, you can choose your cup," Mary said, returning to the kitchen and Ririka followed. "I have quite a few, choose whichever you like."

She opened a small door and showed her collection to Ririka, each cup seemed to be of different design, Ririka picked a light blue one with a cute cartoon bunny on it.

"I know you probably drink some fancy tea at home, but since we're here, you're going to get a bit different tea experience," Mary said with a wide grin.

"I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever tea you're making!" Ririka looked shyly to Mary's direction, holding the bunny cup with two hands.

"Glad you're embracing this 'ordinary life experience' so openly, I was afraid you'd be a _snob_ like half of the other students in Hyakkaou," Mary said, clearly feeling more relaxed that her simple life outside the school was so intriguing to the Vice President. "Hmm… the water is ready, let me bring this to the living room, you go ahead."

Ririka took a seat between the bed and the table on a small sitting pillow. Mary came carrying the tea kettle and her own cup, settled down on another pillow in front of the coffee table.

"Let me know when you're hungry and I'll make something, another crazy experience for today," Mary said and winked. "I have some good instant ramen cups, I bet you've never tasted before."

"Sure! Maybe later, I'm not so hungry right now," Ririka said feeling surprisingly comfortable in this new situation. "So… The questions?"

"Ah, yes. The questions. Should we make this interesting and make a bet on it," Mary asked.

"Sure! We can count points- but how do you know if you get a point or not if it's just a question and an answer?"

"Hmm… How about if we ask the question, then _guess_ what the answer is before the other gives the answer and if the guess is correct, then it's a point!" Mary said, thinking this was a rather silly game more than a very serious one.

"Deal. Though- no easy and obvious questions are allowed then, like if I have a sister or something stupid like that, is that OK?" Ririka asked.

"Sure, no cheating any points either. What does the winner get and when is the game over?"

"How about we ask 5 questions each, to begin with and decide if we want to go for a second round. I'm not sure what the winner should get, though." Ririka continued.

"5+ extra rounds to settle the score sounds good. Winner gets to ask the other to do a 'dare', how'd that sound?" Mary was getting excited to play the game.

"A dare? Hmm… OK, but nothing too dangerous or humiliating, OK?" Ririka was trying to think of any dares she'd want to ask Mary to do. The blonde was pouring the tea while discussing the rules for their mock gamble game.

"No, of course not." Mary grinned.

"So, who starts?" Ririka asked and Mary reached to a small box next to the TV and searched it for few seconds before finding what she was looking for.

"My lucky coin, heads or tails?"

"Tails. I get to choose the order," Ririka said, the blonde had already flipped the coin and caught it on the back of her hand. Mary peeked under her palm.

"Tails it is," she showed the coin to Ririka.

"Hmm, you start." Ririka said and grabbed her cup.

"So, seriously. The mask. What's the deal with the mask?" Mary asked almost instantly. "Oh right, I had to guess too. Well… Since you said you _have_ to wear it in front of the staff, it's some crazy thing like… uh… it's just a crazy thing so it's hard to think any actually rational reason for it but… If I had to guess, I'd say that your family wants to keep it a secret that you two are identical twins, for any messed-up reason there is."

"Well, that's only part of the truth. A bit obvious guess too, I thought you'd get it closer. Well, you could just be nice and play this safe." Ririka was getting rather serious. "Actually, the one huge reason I've been asked to wear it is because I 'show my weaknesses' on my face, I'm easy to read and easily provoked. And we've been trained not to show any emotions since we were very young. Kirari has always been good at not showing anything, I blush very easily as you might have noticed. It's quite involuntary reaction, but I guess it was a reason enough. Long story short, they think I would have failed miserably in Hyakkaou Private Academy if it weren't for the mask and my family is ashamed to have a Momobami who can not live up to their standards."

"Whooo- that's messed up. And the reason why the staff can not see you without it?" Mary was astounded how deep this went with such a stupid thing as gambling or family honor.

"They can not see that I'm weak." Ririka said quietly.

"I'm truly sorry for you, that's just… unforgivable. They've taken away your identity, and for so long too. And I've seen you get serious, you're not weak at all!"

"But it has played out well for Kirari to have a 'secret twin' card up her sleeve whenever she needs it, she sometimes sends me on her errands posing as her. _That_ I actually do well, when I'm pretending to be her, any insults or provocations are a lot easier to deal with when I don't take them personally at all."

"Wow, just… If there's anything I can do to make it easier, let me know," Mary was feeling quite helpless, she really wanted to be more supportive and offer something more concrete.

"This actually makes it a lot better. I feel like I don't have to hide anything from you," Ririka kept blushing while trying to elaborate how great the feeling was to have a special friend like Mary. "But… enough about me, let me ask you something now. Why did you ask me out on this date?"

Mary nearly choked on her tea.

"I'm going to give you my guess before you get too awkward about my question." Ririka hurried to explain. "My guess is that I read too much into the whole 'It's a date!' thing you said earlier today. Now that we have been here for a while it's obvious you are interested to be a very good friend for me, but not more than that. I was nervous for no good reason, I always get like that and if I was acting weird on our way here, I apologize."

"So… wait… question was that why I asked you out on a date and your guess is that I didn't?" Mary summarized.

"Yes." Ririka answered. She could feel her stomach turning unnecessarily again but tried to calm herself and not get over excited over nothing again. She had a permanent blush on her cheeks now.

"Eeh… let me get this, so you did think I asked you out, right? Like in a romantic sense, or whatever?" Mary felt embarrassed to ask about this.

"Yes."

"And you agreed?" Mary was now staring at the half empty cup of tea in her hands.

"Yes." Ririka's voice was very quiet. She could barely hear herself from the ringing that had started in her ears. She was sure if this discussion continued for much longer, her heart would just jump out of her chest.

"To be honest, because I don't want to hurt your feelings here, I did think you needed a friend, like a real friend, someone like me who doesn't want anything from you because you are you. And I was super impressed by the way you handled the war game; you can be as scary as your sister if you want to be. I just never considered something _more_ for what we have here," Mary explained quietly, lifted her gaze from the cup and wanted to handle this more like an adult.

"My feelings are not hurt, don't worry about me," Ririka said, turning her face away. Things were becoming blurry for her. She had felt close to Mary for a while now, Ririka was grateful to have her recognized as a friend but despite this, getting her feelings rejected like this hurt more than she cared to admit.

Mary noticed how upset the older girl was suddenly, she put down her teacup and crept closer. She put her arms around Ririka. "You really do _suck_ at hiding your feelings, and it's totally OK." Mary whispered in her ear. "I'll accept any of your feelings, so please don't be afraid to show them to me."

Ririka turned to return the embrace, closing her arms around Mary and clenched the fabric of the blonde's school blazer in her fists. She rested her forehead against Mary's neck and whispered, "Thank you."

"See, it's not so bad. I'll even give you a point for guessing the answer somewhat right. I'm sorry I didn't know you wanted me to take you out on a date. I would have made more effort for this if I had known," Mary tried to lighten the mood. Ririka was still holding tightly and Mary did not object. "I can just stay here, and we can continue playing."

"Really?" Ririka lifted her head. Their cheeks were nearly touching each other.

"Uhm, of course, let me just get a better position here," Mary said, blushing a bit. She turned around to sit next to Ririka, shoulder to shoulder. "Give me your hand."

"What did you mean with 'more effort' just now?" Ririka asked, sitting close like this was a new kind of exciting for her, at least her stomach had stopped turning. Even holding hands felt more exciting now than what it did earlier.

"Was that an official question?" Mary asked.

"Was that an official question?" Ririka answered.

"What- wait… yeah it's my turn again, sorry. I was confused. No, that was not my question." Mary laughed. "Ahem, so my question… I'm going with a bit easier one to catch up on points. Do you have a crush on me? And my guess for this would be: yes."

"That's not fair!"

"Yes, it is, what you just said earlier was that you thought this was a date, I read the affection part all on my own after that." Mary said proudly and exaggeratingly pointing at her chest while raising her chin up.

"Fine. Well, yes, I guess I do," Ririka pouted. "I guess I'll aim below the belt then too, how about you? Heart fluttering to see me again after this?"

"Oh wow, that's dirty play…" Mary failed to sound surprised, she kept smiling and blushing.

"No, wait! I need to guess first! I'm very optimistic here and I will guess 'yes'. Don't you dare to break my heart twice during the same night," Ririka squeezed Mary's hand.

"Hmm… Ok, I won't say 'no'." Mary said and suddenly found the back of Ririka's hand very interesting thing to stare at.

"Score! So, it's 2-1 for my favor. Your turn!" Ririka gave Mary a small nudge. Mary was still staring at their hands locked together and her face was burning redder and she was breathing rather heavily.

"Uh- So would you like to kiss me? Like… right now?" She carefully turned her head a bit to see Ririka's face. She too, was staring at their hands and was too nervous to move.

Mary moved her other hand to brush it against Ririka's arm, as she did this, she noticed Ririka's breathing getting a lot heavier. Mary lifted her hand higher, ran her fingers softly along Ririka's jawline and gently gestured for her to turn her head and look at Mary's direction. Ririka suddenly felt awake as she had never felt before. Each small touch Mary was giving felt like electric shocks, a strange warmth filled every inch of her body, there was a strange tingling feeling in her toes and fingertips. She tried her best to move but couldn't, her head felt dizzy when Mary turned it to her direction. Ririka closed her eyes, to block at least one of her senses working seriously on overdrive. She felt Mary's hand sliding behind her neck, brushing her ear gently on the way, a gasp escaped Ririka's lips when the contact sent a jolt of pleasure around her body. Mary pulled her gently closer, pressed her lips against Ririka's.

The kiss started out slow, there was a bit fumbling to find the right rhythm for both. Mary clearly took a lead but Ririka got out of her trance and was able to move her hand and grabbed the front of Mary's clothes and pulled her closer. As the tension transformed from nervous to something heavier and _hungrier_, Mary felt like they needed a quick time-out and pulled away from the kiss.

"Riri, wait." She said apologetically when Ririka tried to pull her back. Ririka released her grip of the clothes.

"Mmm-hmm, time-out. Good idea," Ririka breathed, she fixed her sitting position, she had shifted off the pillow when they were kissing. Mary held a hand in front of her mouth and was trying to catch her breath.

"That was… really… look I'm still shaking," Mary said and showed her hands to Ririka.

"I know. I feel like I'm still out of breath," Ririka replied breathlessly.

"Just a wild guess, but this game we invented seems a bit… _risky_, to continue." Mary said, feeling a bit unreal about the past few minutes. "I give up, you win!"

"But you just got a point, didn't you?" Ririka smirked.

"No, I never guessed anything. Frankly, I didn't care about the game or the points much at that point when I asked you if you'd like to kiss me."

"I thought you were just fishing for easy points!" the older girl teased.

"Not at all! I seriously felt like I needed to do that right then or I'd burst or something," Mary said with a long exhale. "I need water, or something cold to drink," Mary got up and walked to the kitchen feeling very wobbly in her knees. Ririka followed, waited for Mary to finish drinking her water and took the glass from her hands and drank the rest.

"Now, if I won, I know what I want you to do as your 'dare'," Ririka said, her eyes drooping and she was playing with Mary's lower lip with her index finger. She noticed she was a bit taller when she was standing so close to the younger girl in front of her. Mary looked up to the blue eyes looming over her face.

"Where did you get all this confidence, Riri?" Mary was seriously intrigued by this new change of pace in their interaction.

"I like it when you call me 'Riri', you did it just now when we stopped kissing," Ririka purred and placed her hand behind Mary's neck, pulled her closer and lowered her head so that her lips were nearly touching Mary's ear. "Just let me know when you're ready for round two." Ririka breathed against the blonde's ear and placed the earlobe in her mouth, sucking slightly.

"Nnngh, Riri, that's…" Mary's head was spinning, she wasn't sure if she could stay standing up if Ririka continued like this. Suddenly feeling a bit colder, she noticed her blazer had been sneakily removed and it fell on the kitchen floor. She felt a warm hand sliding up her thigh and reached the hem of her skirt in a few very decisive movements. "-seriously, I can't stand up if you do that." Mary gathered the last remaining strength she had to gently push Ririka away a bit. She grabbed the hand that was on her thigh and led the Vice President back to the living room.

Mary sat on the bed, patted the empty space next to her, "Now I'm ready for whatever you have planned for my 'dare' punishment.


	2. Chapter 2

Ririka sat next to Mary on the bed. The older girl's intense stare was making Mary feel a bit self-conscious. She hadn't ever seriously considered she'd go this far with anyone, there were few incidents when Yumeko had made some semi-serious passes on her, but she had turned these down, some of these had been in the presence of a very uncomfortable Suzui-san. Even the kiss and infatuation she felt for Ririka had only just come to a realization a few minutes ago. But the way the Vice President just swept her off her feet, making her head spin and feel incredibly dizzy had awoken something inside her that was completely new and exciting. She was not ready to stop exploring this feeling yet.

"So, my punishment for losing?" Mary demanded an answer.

"Who said it'd be a punishment?" Ririka asked, leaning closer to the younger girl. "The thing is," she continued with a calm decisive tone. "—there's a small thing I want you to do for me, Mary—" Ririka placed her other hand on Mary's thigh, startling the blonde who had been concentrating on keeping the eye contact. Other than the deep permanent blush Ririka had on her cheeks, her expression didn't waver when she moved her hand higher up, slowly, "—I want you to show me—"

_RRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG-_

Mary jumped up. "Who the fuck dares to interrupt—" The sharp ring of the doorbell still echoed in the apartment.

_RRRIIINNNGGG- RRRRIIINNGGG-_

"For fuck's sake, COMING!" Mary stumbled to the door. She felt extremely irritated, whoever came unannounced had managed to get through the door downstairs without alerting them. Only spare key she had was with her parents, she didn't have time to wonder why they would just come without any notice. Opening the door with unnecessary force, she found someone behind the door she was not expecting at all. "W-what are _you_ doing here?!"

"Is that a way to greet your seniors?" nonchalant voice asked. Momobami Kirari stood in the hallway, her dark-haired assistant standing a few feet behind her; looking as though she wanted to escape the situation.

"How did you get in?!" Mary asked, clenching her fists.

"I have my ways. Aren't you at least going to invite us in?" The Student Council President requested.

"No. Say what you have to say and leave," Mary hissed between her teeth.

"Fine. We can settle this here in the hallway with all your curious neighbors listening in if that's what you wish. I got a rather interesting phone call from one of our drivers just a while ago. My sister had left the school today, accompanied by a blonde classmate and somewhere around this neighborhood the blonde classmate had dragged my sister forcefully away from the car. Am I to assume you kidnapped my sister, for whatever reason you might have?" Kirari finished her accusations coldly.

"W-What?! You know very well that is not the case… Please come in and see Ririka yourself, she's doing just fine." Mary hated to be cornered like this and unwillingly gestured the two to step inside. She closed the door behind them after they were both inside. "No need to remove your shoes, this is as far as you are welcome to—" Mary tried to say but the President had already shot past her to the living room. "—some fucking manners you have, just waltzing into people's home with your shoes on—"

"Don't worry, Saotome-san, my shoes are cleaner than your floors." Kirari shot coldly. Sayaka stayed behind, close to the exit.

Ririka also got up from the bed and walked up to greet her twin sister. "Good afternoon, Kirari. I heard your commotion from the hallway, I'm doing just fine, like Mary said. This is ridiculous, please leave."

Both Mary and Kirari looked like their jaws might drop open any second. Sayaka's small gasp was almost inaudible from the hallway. Mary was not sure how the sisters usually addressed each other but this sounded like her dear Riri had just thrown a bucket full of ice to Kirari's direction.

"_This_ is ridiculous, you hanging out here playing friends with Saotome-san, acting out in front of the staff and making them worry for your safety." Kirari started with a condescending tone. She gave off an expression as if she was standing in a middle of garbage, her eyes were wondering around until they stopped when she spotted the red blazer on the kitchen floor. Mary nervously shot a look at the kitchen floor too when she saw what Kirari was looking at and tried to catch Ririka's eyes as if to telepathically send her a SOS message of the possible shitstorm ahead. _Too late._ Kirari gave a curious look at Mary's direction, probably counting 1+1 in her head. After a short quiet break where each of the three seemed to have noticed the same thing, Kirari broke the silence. "—Interesting… So, Saotome-san, you must be _really_ desperate if you have already let this creep of a sister of mine have her way with—" Kirari's words were interrupted when Mary gave a spontaneous slap across her face.

Ririka covered her mouth with both of her hands. Sayaka ran to the room. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Sayaka was about to come between the President and the blonde, but the President lifted her arm to stop Sayaka from approaching.

"Leave it, Sayaka. This does not concern you," the President said, not showing anger or any other feeling to imply what was to come of this sudden outburst. "This does, however, concern you two." Kirari held a hand against her sore cheek and had a strange glint in her eyes when she took turns staring at Ririka and Mary. Mary took a step closer to Ririka, blocking partially the sisters apart.

"Leave Ririka out of this, I slapped you, just take it out on me if you have to." The blonde said, feeling disappointed in herself for letting a small taunt get the best of her.

The President chuckled. "I have no need for such vulgar methods to express myself." The glint in her eyes had not disappeared, seeing Mary take such a strong stand, _literally_, to cover her cowardly sister had only piqued her interest even more. "I did not come here to fight; I came to get my sister home back for dinner. I'm extending the invitation for you too, Saotome-san. Sayaka is also joining us."

"No, thank you. We're good, we already have plans for—" Mary declined but was interrupted by the President.

"I'm not _asking._" The silver-haired heiress gave a meaningful glare. "Car is downstairs, I give you 5 minutes to get your things." She turned on her heels and walked to the door, Sayaka following her footsteps.

They arrived to the Momobami residence in one car. Kirari had insisted to sit in the back with her sister and Mary. Mary had been unlucky to get the middle seat, she had kept staring in front of her the whole long ride, feeling the curious stares burning her cheeks from both sides. Nobody had said anything and the atmosphere in the car had been so heavy you couldn't have broken through it with a chainsaw.

Ririka was wearing her mask again, Mary had protested heavily against it but given up back at the apartment when Ririka had made a strong case against more unnecessary fights before they got to the estate. Ririka had also offered to cover for Mary if she wanted to skip the dinner but Mary was rather curious to see what Kirari had planned for the evening. Of course, she had also been curious to see where Ririka was staying but left that detail unsaid.

Mary was happy to get out of the car; she took long breaths of fresh air and quietly examined the surroundings. The Momobami estate was a lot smaller what she had imagined. It still looked mighty expensive, 3 medium sized buildings aligning a round clean yard, few town cars in a clear line on a small parking lot close to the entrance gate.

"This is where we stay with Ririka while we're at school," Kirari explained, clearly noticing Mary's curious looks of the surroundings. "The family estate is higher up north, it's like a small village compared to this one. Ririka didn't tell you?" Kirari teased.

"Thanks for the intro, we had more interesting topics to talk about than the Momobami family assets," Mary replied while trying hard not to think about the topics they had discussed earlier and avoid heavy blushing.

"That wing is where Ririka sleeps," Kirari pointed the building on the left side of the yard, and obviously got the response from Mary she wanted when a small blush rose to the blonde's cheeks. "You can stay over night if you like, of course, and ride to school tomorrow morning with Ririka."

Mary was turning bright red but did not respond immediately. She knew exactly what Kirari was trying to imply with these kinds of comments and was once again very disappointed in herself to show such strong involuntary reactions. Once again, Ririka's reactions, whatever these might have been, went unnoticed by everyone under her mask. Mary hoped for a moment she could borrow one of the masks too but remembered why she was so disgusted by them in the first place. This led to another realization.

"Maybe I will," she said, flashing the President a smile, a bit on the pretentious side, but a smile, nevertheless. Mary was sure she heard a small cough coming from Ririka's direction. Sayaka was glaring at Mary, not even trying to hide the jealous aura emitting from her, apparently the over night invitation had not been extended to her.

The President gave a rather hearty laugh, "That's what I like about you, Mary-san! Let's get going, the dinner is getting cold." She said and started walking towards the building in the middle. The three girls followed.

When they got inside, an older woman wearing a plain dark kimono greeted the party overly politely, Mary felt a bit uncomfortable having someone kneeling and bowing so deeply in front of her. Mary kept eyeing the others to see what she had to do, this level of living was _very_ unfamiliar and left her feeling a bit self-conscious of her background. After following the others with the polite necessities, Mary noticed they had emerged to a small hallway, she also noticed Ririka had finally removed her mask which made her heart feel a bit lighter.

Ririka grabbed Mary's arm gently and stopped. Either Kirari didn't notice or didn't care, as the other two kept walking ahead the corridor. "...Hey, can we talk?" The Vice President whispered and started dragging Mary to a small room, checking it was empty, she quietly closed the door behind them.

"Uh, yeah, sure. What is it?" Mary asked, keeping her voice quiet.

"I know my sister can be a lot, and I mean, _a lot,_ to handle…" Ririka started.

"I can take care of myself, no need to worry," Mary interrupted.

"No, it's not maybe you I'm worried about. She might tell some… uhm-, details about me. I was hoping we would have gotten to know each other a bit more before she starts messing with me again," Ririka said quietly, looking a bit embarrassed. "I just didn't have time to tell you everything yet and—"

"Hey, it's totally fine. I know what kind of mind games she likes to play, I'm pretty sure I can match whatever she has to throw at me," Mary said encouragingly, "And whatever she says about you, I'll wait to hear your version first before I decide what to think about it, OK?"

"Thank you, Mary, we should probably go before she sends the hounds after us," the Vice President sounded surprisingly serious about the hounds. Mary winced at the thought of some ferocious Dobermans chasing her tail, she was afraid of big dogs and was now worried she'd have nightmares for few weeks.

Mary was taken aback when the taller girl suddenly turned and placed a soft kiss on her lips, the kiss lingered for a moment longer than what Mary was prepared for and she needed to break it to catch her breath. "Sorry, that was a bit sudden… Didn't have time to catch my breath." Mary gave a playful punch on Ririka's arm. "Great, now I need to gather myself, again."

They emerged back to the corridor that was now empty and walked to the direction the others had disappeared a while ago.

"But seriously, hounds?!" Mary asked, shivering at the thought.

The dinner was served to a large table, the four were seated in the other end of the table. The dishes were a lot fancier than Mary's usual cup noodles with hot dog pieces lazily cut up in the mix.

"Hope you enjoy the meal," the President said politely, addressing the two new visitors to their usual dinner table.

"So, it's just the two of you here for the whole semester?" Mary asked to keep a conversation going. She tried to keep the topics neutral to avoid any further confrontations.

"Yes—," Ririka started to answer but was interrupted by her sister.

"Yes, the two of us and the staff. Which _some_ of us like to entertain a bit more than is necessary," Kirari hurried to add to Ririka's answer.

"Oh, I see. There's a lot of staff then?" Mary asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the obvious bait Kirari had just thrown in the mix.

"Yes, around 10 regulars and then all of those whom we have to let go for various reasons," Kirari baited again.

"I see, interesting. Do you entertain a lot of visitors here, or should I start feeling very special?" Mary steered the conversation to other direction.

"We host some gatherings for the Council members here from time to time," Kirari was getting bored when her hints were so boldly ignored. "But if you'd like to feel special, just ask my sister to show you her scrapbook of "The Amazing Saotome Mary"."

Ririka nearly choked on her food and turned bright red. Mary kept her cool and smiled politely.

"Sounds really nice, you need to show it to me later, Ririka!" Mary replied cheeringly.

"She keeps it in her bedroom, under her pillow. Maybe you'd have found it tonight without my help," Kirari was pushing the food around on her plate, looking very bored. Whatever she had thought to get out of this dinner, she hadn't gotten it yet.

The four finished their dinner in silence. The President hadn't touched her food much and had propped her elbow against the table, resting her head on it and looked rather uninterested about the company. Sayaka had been quiet for the whole dinner, politely finished her plate, she had a fairly serene expression on her face. Ririka was blushing and staring at her plate, lost in her thoughts. Mary also finished her plate and decided to break the silence.

"So, Ririka, should we go check your room now?" Mary tilted her head and tried to get an eye contact with the blushing girl.

The other Momobami twin awoke from her bored state and lazily gazed at her sister, raising her brows slightly. "Oh, she would like to show it to you, I'm sure, but the night is still young, let's do something fun before I let you enjoy the loving company of—"

"That's enough, Kirari. I do not need your permission to—" Ririka started to defend herself.

"Oh, don't need it now do we? Who was it that was too scared to go even talk to Mary-san before I _ordered_ you to follow her around?" Kirari seemed to get her lost interest in provoking people back.

Ririka on the other hand, despite the heavy blush on her cheeks was giving her twin a very serious look that gave chills to the remaining party at the table.

"I'm doing just fine on my own now," Ririka replied coldly.

Kirari gave her sister a curious look, seemingly getting excited to poke around some more. Mary decided to chime in before things got too heated between the two sisters.

"I can vouch for that! You'd never know how much I enjoyed our afternoon," Mary said, grabbed Ririka's hand. Ririka was startled but didn't remove her hand. Sayaka noticed her mouth was gaping and soon closed it. "I can sincerely just thank you with all the help you've obviously given for your sister and the support, I wish we all had siblings who'd go to such lengths."

Kirari stared at Mary for a second, then burst into laughter. "Interesting! As expected, Saotome-san! Now we just need my dear sister to make a stand of her own, and I'll retire for the night, satisfied. So, how's it going to be, Ririka?"

Ririka was clearly thinking how to express herself, her face was burning bright of anger and she kept staring at Kirari intensely. She looked like she was about to say something but held her tongue.

"Nothing?" Kirari asked after a while. "Still need _more_ help from me? I bet Mary-san would feel a bit different about standing up for you like this if she knew all the _perverted_ things you, my dear _filthy_ sister, have been doing for the past years…"

"ENOUGH! THAT'S ENOUGH! YOU KNOW NOTHING WHAT REALLY HAPPENED! YOU CAN'T JUST SPIT LIES AND RUIN OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES LIKE THAT!" Ririka screamed in tears.

"That's the spirit! Now calm down, there's no need to scream, that's not very lady-like." Kirari stated, her piercing blue eyes looked almost soft for a moment when she was looking at the sobbing mess sitting across the table. Her mouth twisted to a smug smile when Saotome Mary boldly grabbed the sobbing head between her hands and planted a kiss on her sister's lips in front of the whole party sitting at the table. Sayaka was too embarrassed to look in their direction but almost lost her balance when she heard the President address her directly, and she had to do a 180 turn on her seat. "Sayaka, if you feel too tired to go home tonight, you can also stay over for the night."

Sayaka's heart skipped a beat and she gave a way too eager, "YES, PLEASE!"

"I need you to sleep in the same room with those two to make sure—" Kirari started, seeing the overly ecstatic face also do a hasty turn to sour, she waited painfully long before continuing, "No, I'm just pulling your leg, Sayaka. I wouldn't force anyone to see _that." _


	3. Chapter 3

It was a quite clear sign that the dinner was over when Kirari got up and nudged Sayaka that it was time to leave. Mary stayed put, she wanted to give Ririka some time to gather herself from the recent outburst. The blonde was fiddling an empty drinking glass and waiting for the footsteps from the corridor to fade and when she was sure the President and her assistant had gotten out of the earshot, Mary decided to ask about the situation.

"Are you OK, Riri?"

"…mm'hm… In a bit…" Ririka was drying her eyes and taking deep breaths.

"Just take your time," Mary tried her best to sound encouraging. Ririka had been avoiding any eye contact, Mary thought this to be because of the crying. This was not the first time she had witnessed the blue eyes filling with tears. It had been since Ririka started to follow Mary around, whenever they had a moment to themselves and Mary had insisted that the mask came off, it ended either in tears or so heavy blushing it was hard to get anything out of the Vice President. Seeing other people crying made Mary feel uncomfortable and she usually didn't know how to react in these types of situations.

They were interrupted by one of the servants entering the room, probably thinking it to be empty because it had been so quiet for a few minutes. The servant flinched when she noticed there were still people sitting at the table.

"My deepest apologies, I thought Momobami-sama left the dinner table already. I can come back later," the servant in her dark outfit gave another exaggeratingly low bow. Mary gave her an awkward smile but realized as soon as she twisted her face that the servant was facing the floor and couldn't see her.

"Uh, no need, I think we're ready. Right, Ririka?" Mary asked, getting up and extending her hand to Ririka, who gave a small nod and stood up, but didn't take Mary's hand. The Vice President took the lead and walked out of the dining room with quiet steps.

Once they were in the hallway, Mary kept looking at the taller girl's back walking in front of her, the distant behavior was starting to get Mary worried she had said something inappropriate during the sparky conversation with Kirari earlier. They reached the _genkan_ in silence and Mary was putting her shoes on when Ririka finally broke the silence.

"Do you still want to stay?" she asked with a small voice.

"Do _you_ want me to stay? It was the Prez who invited me, so if you don't feel comfortable about it, I'll just go home. It's not too late yet," Mary asked, carefully trying to tiptoe around the sensitive subject.

The whole conversation since they got off the car had been steered by Kirari and Mary, who kept dodging Kirari's baits. It felt like it had been longer, but the truth was that Mary and Ririka had just realized their infatuation for each other on this same day. Decision to stay overnight had just been a power struggle between the Student Council President and a very, _very_, stubborn Saotome Mary who refused to give in to such cheap provocations.

"I… I want to show you something and explain a bit what the screaming earlier was about, then you can decide if you still want to stay or not," Ririka sounded defeated.

"Sounds reasonable enough, I doubt it would change my mind, though," Mary kept trying to cheer the Vice President up.

They walked through the yard, Ririka seemed to suddenly realize the absence of her mask and changed to other side of Mary, grabbed Mary's sleeve and quickly dragged her forward. Mary looked around and saw no one. They soon entered another similar _genkan_ and removed their shoes. Ririka seemed a bit out of breath.

"My apologies, I should have been wearing the mask," Ririka breathed out.

"Why? There was nobody around… You didn't wear it inside the other building either," Mary felt confused.

"Well, the staff is not allowed to directly look at us." Ririka said quietly.

"Ugh. I just don't get all the stupid rules…" Mary whined.

"Hmh, I never thought about it much, it's been like this as long as I can remember," Ririka looked thoughtful. The girls changed into cozy slippers and started walking down a small corridor.

"So, this wing is yours? Can I see your room?" Mary pried.

"Well, all of the rooms here are mine, but we should go to the bedroom, I want to show you something," Ririka said, inhaling sharply as if preparing herself to something unpleasant.

"You sound so serious, I'm getting a bit worried you have some serious skeletons in your closet," Mary tried to joke and keep the mood lighter. Ririka grabbed Mary's hand and led her to her bedroom.

The room itself was spacious, mostly due to the lack of furniture. It had a large bed in the middle, a dressing table against the furthest wall and some furniture that looked old and antique, that Mary assumed were there for clothing. Ririka turned and looked a bit miserable again.

"Actually, I still have my 'dare' I didn't get a chance to check out with you earlier. I know this is an odd request, but would you please kiss me? Like we did in your apartment earlier?" Ririka asked softly.

"Of course, but why? You don't need to use it for that," Mary was getting seriously anxious of the mood, she was unable to read anything off the other girl's expressions.

"I'm going to show you something and you can decide if you would rather leave and not see me again after that, I just really want to kiss you before you decide to leave," Ririka was staring at the floor, talking really quietly.

"So, you are pretty serious about this… I'm still not accepting this as my dare, doesn't seem right," Mary said and closed the distance between them. She raised both of her hands to Ririka's face and lifted her chin gently to meet with her eyes. Mary saw the blue eyes getting watery again and added a soft whisper, "You do not have a permission to cry before I make my decision about leaving, is that clear?"

This small effort of control was enough reason for Ririka to regain a hold of herself. She placed her hands on the blonde's hips and pulled her slightly closer until the hips softly collided with hers. Mary let her other hand slide behind the taller girl's neck and leaned in for the kiss. Their lips met, starting slowly and softly first, Mary was getting the familiar fuzzy feeling back and gently added a bit of tongue to gesture she wanted more. Ririka complied without hesitating and the kiss deepened.

For what felt like minutes, it was just hushed moans, heavy breathing and tongues caressing each other. Hands started to wander; blazers flew across the room. Mary was gently guiding Ririka closer to the bed, she was halfway buttoning down the older girl's shirt when the kiss was abruptly broken by Ririka.

"I really need to show you what Kirari was talking about when we had the dinner," Ririka said, pulling the blonde back on earth.

"Oh, right…" Mary wiped her cheeks with the back of her palm and took a seat on the bed, still catching her breath. Ririka went to retrieve something from the top drawer of one of the antique looking dressers. It looked like a heavy folder. Mary had a faint idea what it might be.

"This is what I need you to see, it's not a scrapbook per se, but I have read through it several times. It's only fair you know, uh-, that you know how much I know…" Ririka looked apologetic when she returned with the large folder in her hands. She passed the folder to Mary and took a seat on the bed.

Mary examined the large folder, there was a rather faded label on the front that had her name and student number on it. She opened the folder and was surprised to find a long index page with references to files contained within the folder.

"Student contact details, copy of the entrance exam, copies of past report cards…" Mary read out loud quietly and ran her index finger along the index,"…debts and account information, personal data… wait… what the heck is personal data?!" Mary gave the older girl a puzzled look.

"Uh—well, it's all kinds of things the Student Council has collected during the years you've spent in Hyakkaou Academy," Ririka said, her voice fading when she saw Mary flip through the files.

"…Student Saotome Mary, surveillance report, date…" Mary started to read out loud and her eyes flew open. "Wait… what is this?! Someone was following me?! …There are even photos of me… eating? Who cares what I eat? And this one with me and Yumeko when we won against Kiwatari… This looks like surveillance camera footage?! Why is this relevant for anyone?"

"I—, I promise this is strictly confidential Student Council—"

"The Student Council wants to know what I have for lunch?! Follow my every footstep throughout the school—" Mary was getting agitated.

"I CARE! I care about the small things!" Ririka cried out.

"So, _you_ ordered someone to tail me? Why would—" Mary started but Ririka cut her off.

"No, I did not! That was a decision made by the Student Council, not me," Ririka explained.

"So, the Student Council, _including you_, wants to know what I eat, where I go, who I gamble with, who I hang out with… Wait… Why do you have this _here_?" Mary just realized this folder should probably be hidden somewhere in the Student Council's records.

"I brought it home when they asked me to follow you, just to get to know some basic things about you," Ririka looked nervous and kept playing with the hem of her skirt.

"You could have just asked… " Mary said, she had a lot of things on her mind, mostly she felt violated but couldn't exactly point out why. This had to be something the Student Council had done for other students as well that they considered a threat in some way.

"They also asked me to fill more details there, if I found out something useful. I didn't add anything there though, I promise. And I'm not following you anymore because they ask me to," Ririka said, defending herself.

Mary was still shifting through the personal surveillance files, mostly staying quiet apart from the few 'tsk' sounds she let out when she found material she'd rather not have been included in her file. Ririka kept eyeing Mary cautiously and held her breath.

"So, uh… You wanted me to know you have this?" Mary finally asked.

"Yes, I thought it would be unfair if you didn't know that I knew all this about you, based on the conversation you had today with Kirari, she does not mind if you know, she seemed rather eager for you to find out, actually."

"And she thought I would do what exactly if I found out about this? More I think about this, less surprised I am that the Student Council has something like this about any student in Hyakkaou Academy." Mary summarized her thoughts.

"I guess she though you would be angry and leave, so did I, to be honest." Ririka said, blushing and looking very guilty.

"Well, the fact that you know all this, and you said you read this through many times is a bit weird. I feel strangely _violated_ by all this—" Mary started to explain her feelings but Ririka cut her off.

"I never meant to use any of this against you and I can pretend I don't know any of this!" Ririka started to sound a bit panicked.

"Can I please finish what I was about to say?" Mary asked and got a small shy nod in response. "So what I was saying, is that yes, this does make you a bit… weird and _definitely_ a borderline stalker, even if you did not ask to see this, you still read it, and like you said yourself, you've read all of this several times."

Mary kept a small break, idly shifting through the endless records of her daily activities.

"But… What I've gathered here, is that this information is not even particularly interesting. Why would you be interested to read this? I'm barely invested to read anything in here after few pages," Mary was quite unimpressed by the files, it wasn't like they even saw any effort analyzing the data they had gathered. It was just plain boring details of her daily life; most files were not worth to be kept on the records. She'd think if the Student Council decided to dig dirt on someone, they'd actually find something.

"I just… I wanted to find something that would help me get to know you better, if there was something that I could do to get your attention—"

"But you have my attention, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with these stupid files. I'm intrigued by _you_. Sure, I was never interested to get acquainted with someone who decided to hide behind a mask but ever since we started to hang around, I've grown to like you a lot," Mary was sounding rather frustrated.

"I don't like you because of the things in that folder!" Ririka was taking a defensive tone. "There's a lot about you, Mary, that I find very intriguing. Small things, like behavior patterns you do in certain situations."

"Like what?" Mary huffed.

"I noticed you keep an arsenal of strange items in your pockets for different occasions—" Ririka started.

"You went through my pockets?!" the blonde was astounded.

"No-no-no, I never did that. I've just seen you take something out every once in a while, and it's always _not_ what I thought it might be. Like the small hairclip with flowers, didn't that belong to—" Ririka tried to remember the name of the girl.

"I don't want to talk about _her_, and I think you know why," Mary's voice was cold, her face had turned sour.

"Right, I understand… But there are other things too! Like the melon bread you eat; it's like a ritual you do, I can't stop staring at you when you get your hands on one," Ririka's face lit up when she talked about the things she likes about Mary. "There's a specific way you open the bag, which part of the bread you eat first, how you fold the bag when it's empty… It's just hypnotizing to watch you sometimes."

Mary took a long careful look at Ririka. Her expression softened.

"So, what you're saying is that you're a weirdo who likes to watch me eat?" Mary teased.

"Uh, I guess you could say that," the older girl replied shyly.

"Uh-huh, so if I were to let you off the hook here, with this paper mess that you have, was there something else you wanted me to know about?" Mary said, trying to remember what the President had been baiting at the dinner table. "Kirari was hinting something about the staff, if I remember correctly…"

"Hmm… Yes. It was not entirely my fault! She was playing her games with me and she doesn't really care about the consequences." Ririka gave out a long sigh.

"Sounds about right, she gives me the chills." Mary didn't find it so hard to believe Kirari would have done something and not give a crap about how that would affect other people.

"So, this was a while ago, we had a rather attractive girl working with our staff. About our age, I think she was the daughter of one of the drivers," the silver-haired girl was nervously staring at her hands while talking.

"Let me guess, Kirari saw you eyeing her, right?" Mary was already guessing where the story was going.

"Uh-huh, and I guess Kirari dug up some dirt on her, blackmailed her to make advances towards me. I didn't even know this was her idea," Ririka turned bright red, "I was just thrilled that this girl saw something in me as well, she was very believable and _very_ inappropriate."

"So, you two went too far, right?" Mary asked, now feeling certain she knew the outcome.

"Uh, yeah. I eventually gave in to some of these advances." Ririka's voice was getting smaller when she progressed in her story. "Kirari arranged a situation where we were caught, this girl was of course fired as a result and I feel awful for her. I would have wanted to apologize after I heard what actually happened, but I never got a chance."

"So, that was the thing Kirari was hinting at? Of course, you need to find this girl and apologize properly, but I don't see how that'd affect me at all?" Mary was trying to find the right words.

"Doesn't affect you at all?" Ririka felt like the air had just escaped her lungs.

"No, not really." Mary totally failed to notice the other girl's distress.

"I see." Ririka stood up and walked up to one of the dressers. "Maybe we should call it a night and go to sleep, if you still want to stay here, that is." The tone of her voice had turned unnaturally neutral.

Mary was starting to pick up on the sudden change of mood in the silvery-haired heiress. "Whoa, Riri, did I say something wrong?"

"No, just your honest opinions. I'm fine," Ririka turned around to face the blonde and forced a smile. "I just want to know if you are going to stay or not, I know to ask the staff to prepare the guest room for you."

"Wait… Guest room? Right… Uh." Mary was lost in her thoughts.

"So, you would like to stay, then?" Ririka pressed, the absolute neutral tone was starting to freak Mary out. Even Kirari couldn't match this level of intimidation, or maybe it was just the fact that Ririka was usually so timid that made this change even more drastic.

"Of course, but I—I'd like to know why you're acting like this so suddenly. I told you before, that I'd accept any feelings you have, right? So, if something I said hurt you in some way, I'd like to know what it was." Mary tried to get Ririka to open up about whatever had upset her.

"I watched you all night, dodging Kirari's attempts to get under your skin. I was in awe how well you kept your cool and to be honest, I really appreciated it when you took my side defending me too." Ririka was still speaking in uncharacteristically dispassionate tones but seeing her slightly shaking hands, Mary noticed how the older girl was really trying to make an effort not to let herself fall apart. "And it did not really occur to me before you said you were not affected _at all_ when I just told you what kind of feelings I had for someone else. I let my guard down around her and let her sleep in my bed. I couldn't even imagine how I would feel if you told me something like that—"

"Riri, I—"

"I need to say this! That girl's life is probably ruined, because my sister was bored and I couldn't stand up for her." Ririka took a small break, she had trouble keeping calm, her hands were still shaking, and she clenched them into fists.

"But you didn't—, " Mary tried to speak.

"Please, let me finish." Ririka pleaded and Mary nodded. "So, what occurred to me was that maybe you _don't_ have feelings for me. That's why it was so easy for you to not be bothered by anything Kirari had to say and that is acceptable, I'm not saying that you need to feel for me as I feel for you. I know I got a bit carried away with my affection for you, but I just realized after everything that happened today that if we keep going on like this, further we go, more painful it will be if you can not respond to those feelings."

There was a short silent moment. Mary rose up, letting the folder in her hands drop to the floor with all the papers splaying across the floor, Ririka winced slightly in surprise.

"Can I say something now?" the blonde asked in a demanding manner. Not even waiting for a response, she continued and started walking towards where Ririka was standing. "Thing that you fail to notice, probably on several occasions, is that you are completely unreadable when you are hiding behind the mask. All this time you've been following me around at school, I never got to notice those small things about you that you notice about me. It's a bit unfair for you to expect me to be on the same level of affection when I've only had this afternoon to think about all of this."

Mary made it to where Ririka was standing with few decisive steps, Ririka opened her mouth to say something but Mary gave a piercing glance and quickly placed her palm on Ririka's face, covering her mouth.

"My turn to speak… I've grown to like you despite the fact that most of the time we've spent together so far, you've been hiding under the hideous mask. That's _a lot_, if you ask me or anyone decent. I understand that you've spent all of your life in your sister's shadow but I'm quite certain you're wrong about her motives," Mary took a small break, still holding her hand on Ririka's mouth, "your sister seems to care about you a lot, whether you see it or not, she's not messing with you because she is bored."

"But… what comes to my feelings, you can not just blatantly decide I don't have any and suddenly start acting so coldly towards me. Could you just give me a chance to get to where you are at? So far, the only thing I know about you is that you're a weirdo who likes me and I _like_ that and don't get me wrong, but when you get all scary and serious, I strangely find that attractive as fuck. But at the same time, I also like that you show it openly how vulnerable you are, even if it's just for me or because it's especially for me, that's why I ask now, please don't shut yourself away and give me a chance. That's all. You may speak now," Mary said, feeling out of breath after venting out. She let her hand slide from the taller girl's mouth.

Ririka took a moment to consider her options and contemplated on Mary's words.

"You were the one who told me to figure out what I want; to decide what I want for myself. Well… That's you, _Saotome Mary,_ I want you to be mine. _Only_ mine." There was sincerity and resolution in Ririka's words that gave Mary goosebumps.

"Eh… Riri, dear, that sounds a bit possessive," the blonde said, laughing nervously.

"That is just what I want. Is that a problem?" Ririka asked, her own insecurities were starting to take over.

"Well… No, it's good that you know what you want now. But I'm not going anywhere, so there's no need to hurry. Uhm… do I still have to sleep in the guest room tonight?" Mary asked, now taking Ririka's hands to her own.

"So, you _want_ to sleep here with me?" Ririka sounded almost surprised.

"Of course, silly." Mary watched as the pink color rose back to Ririka's cheeks and her face lit up to a beautiful, excited smile. "Just… don't take pictures of me when I'm sleeping, OK?"

Authors Note: _'Genkan'_ is the hallway area when you enter a house in Japan, it's usually a bit lower than the rest of the floors and that's where people leave their shoes when they come in. Forgot to mention in the earlier chapter, apologies.

"OMAKE" Chapter 3.5 ~Alternative scene~

"Eh… Riri, dear that sounds a bit possessive," Mary said, laughing nervously.

"Why are you laughing? I'm _serious_." Ririka said, inching her face closer and staring Mary intensely.

"Ahem, that was just because you made me nervous," Mary said, trying to keep a straight face. "And scared."

"Is it working?" the blue-eyed girl asked, staring deep into the golden eyes.

"…"

"Is it?"

"This is because I said you're attractive when you're all serious and scary, isn't it?"


	4. Chapter 4

The stuff here has been on my mind a lot. The manga for Kakegurui is nowhere near being finished and I started to write this story after Chapter 68 of the manga. I decided I will not wait for what the manga has in store, but instead give an alternative take on the things.

FFnet Kakegurui fandom doesn't seem too active. Please leave a review or a follow, I also have this on AO3 so let me know if you wan't updates here on this too!

Thank you, and hopefully you enjoy this chapter!

_Nova_

* * *

The black town car drove in front of the school gates and four girls emerged from the backseat. Mary was hoping they wouldn't draw so much attention. A group of girls nearby were trying to act casual and pretended they weren't just ogling the blonde and the President's assistant who were an unusual sight and a disturbance to the Momobami daily rituals.

Breakfast and the ride to the school had been rather uneventful. Kirari had kept her usually sharp remarks to a minimum and this led Mary to a conclusion that the President was not a morning person, which made her seem a bit more human.

Kirari was already halfway across the yard with Sayaka taking hurried steps behind her. Ririka stayed by the gate to wait for Mary who was determined to keep walking nonchalantly and not care about the curious bystanders. She passed Ririka on her way and didn't notice the agitated look on the silver-haired girl who, again, was wearing her mask.

"Hey, everything OK?" Ririka said, sound coming off distorted from her mask.

"Yeah, I just want to get out of the spotlight," Mary said and kept walking.

They reached the stairs leading to the school, when Yumeko creeped up on Mary and grabbed her friend by the waist.

"_Maaary-san!_ Good, you're here!" Yumeko said, flashing a big smile.

"UGH! Get off!" came the immediate answer and Mary kept shoving her friend further. Ririka stood still, watched the two without saying a word.

"I want to find a fun gamble den today, after school. _Please,_ would you join me? You left so early yesterday," Yumeko said and pouted. Mary glanced at Ririka's direction but got nothing out of the masked girl.

"Yeah, I guess I have nothing planned." Mary couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something seemed a bit off with the silver-haired girl. It wasn't the fact that she was not talking, that was not unusual but maybe it was the whole posture and aura surrounding her that felt strange.

"Wonderful! Will you be joining us too, Vice President?" Yumeko was being her polite self.

"I would like to, if the Student Council does not need me," Ririka replied, voice still nearly robotic through the mask. Mary grinded her teeth, spending time with Ririka was the one thing she had been enjoying for the past 24 hours but having her around with the mask on again was getting on her nerves.

"Excuse me, I need to get going. I will see you at lunch, Mary-san… Jabami-san…" Ririka gave a small polite bow and started to climb up the stairs. Mary was about to call after her but resisted the urge.

After the Vice President had disappeared through the doors, Yumeko turned to Mary with a wicked grin on her face. "So, Mary-san, I just saw all of you arrive in the same car. Were you all having fun without me?"

Red tint rose on the blonde's cheeks in an instant and she hurried ahead and left the dark-haired girl standing on the bottom of the stairs, still grinning.

* * *

Lunchtime came and Mary felt slightly nervous over the sight of the silver-haired girl standing outside class and waiting.

"Mary, I need a word with you, can we go somewhere private?" Ririka was fidgeting impatiently when the blonde walked up to her.

"Of course, wait just a sec… Oy! Yumeko!" Mary turned around to find her friend from the crowd leaving the classroom. She spotted the gambling addict walking with Suzui, turning towards Mary calling out for her. "We need a moment, just go on ahead without us."

Mary gestured they should go back to the classroom, checking it was empty of other students first and waited for the Vice President to step in and closed the door behind them. Ririka turned back to face Mary and removed the mask. The blonde felt her heart flutter at the sight of the timid girl, the familiar tint coloring her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but I think I need to pass on today's gambling. There's urgent family business Kirari asked me to take care of," Ririka said quietly.

"Sure, just take your time—" Mary started to think there was more to this than just simple family business matters.

"I need to go to our family estate up North, I might not return before late next week." Ririka was nearly tearing up over the news she had to deliver.

"You'll be gone for a whole week?" Mary felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She had already mulled over a few ideas of the two spending more time together.

"Please, don't forget about me while I'm gone," Ririka said, quietly holding back tears. Mary took a step closer and grabbed the older girl's hand.

"Hey stupid, of course I won't." Mary tried to encourage the other girl.

Ririka took a long breath and tried to steady her nervousness before she continued. "One more thing, you can't tell _anyone_ we had this conversation."

* * *

The two joined others for lunch and departed to attend the afternoon classes. Mary was bothered by the fact that Ririka had been acting so strange earlier. She also hoped she would have gotten a bit more time to spend with her in the classroom, but the silver-haired girl had been almost too eager to join the others and not discuss about the matter any further.

The bell rang at the end of the last class of the day and Mary was gathering her things when the excessively eager dark-haired girl grabbed her to an awkward hug.

"Time to gamble, Mary-san!" Yumeko said joyfully, ignoring the struggles of the blonde in her embrace.

"NNGH! Stop, Yumeko, can't breathe…" Mary said, warm and soft boobs squishing her face partially while she was still seated.

"Let's not keep the Vice President waiting, Mary-san!" Yumeko eased her grip and let the blonde finish stuffing her things in her bag.

"Uh, yeah, she mentioned that she might not be attending—"

"Oh, she did? Well, I guess she decided to join us after all, she's out in the hallway waiting." Yumeko continued. Mary's shoulders tensed up and she lurched around on her seat, jumped up and walked towards the Vice President. Before she had time to say anything, the silver-haired girl lifted her index finger in front of the mask to gesturing Mary to keep her mouth shut.

Yumeko emerged through the door, dragging Suzui behind her, who was carrying two bags.

"You left your bag, Mary-san. Good afternoon, Vice President." Yumeko greeted the girl politely and seemed to be oblivious about the things that were going on in the hallway. Mary however had an educated guess what was going on and was getting anxious.

"No need for such formalities, please, call me _Ririka,_" the silver-haired girl responded, voice transformed from the mask. Mary was clenching her fists so hard her knuckles had turned white.

"Oh, that's very nice of you, Ririka-san!" Yumeko's face was beaming. "Now, where should we go? I want to have a nice gamble tonight!"

"I heard the first-year students just opened a new den close to the library," Suzui said and offered Mary her bag, but she was too occupied feeling pissed off to notice. "Uh… Mary-san? Your bag?"

"W-what? Oh… yeah." Mary snapped out of her trance and snatched the bag out of Suzui's hands quickly.

The group started to walk towards the library, Mary kept eyeing the masked girl and felt a lump of discomfort form in her stomach. Suzui and Yumeko were engaged in a jolly conversation and Mary didn't feel like participating. The lurking feeling of deception lingered around Mary and made her vision blurry. When they reached the club room they were looking for, she let the others go inside and stopped the Vice President.

"What kind of a sick game is this supposed to be, _President?"_ Mary said quietly under her breath and gave a murderous look to the masked girl.

"I think you mean _Vice_ President, Mary-san?" Expressionless voice sounded behind the mask.

"What right do you think you have to pretend to be friends with us all?" The blonde made sure her question was dripping with contempt.

"You made a promise earlier today, I understood as much. Please, make sure you keep it," the Vice President said in a quiet robotic voice.

"It did not include _this_. How am I supposed to act normal when I know—"

"You know nothing, Mary-san. Now please refrain from using extreme measures to expose what you think you have uncovered. Do that and _I_ promise I will make this worth your efforts." The Vice President stood still, waiting for the blonde to give an answer.

After a long pause, Mary had been trying to collect her thoughts and make more sense of the situation, she finally replied. "Fine. I'll play your game, for now. But if I see you taking advantage of my friends, I'll expose everything. Leave them out of this."

* * *

The evening was thoroughly exhausting, Mary had to make sure she didn't pay too much attention to the masked girl. The whole evening, she kept hoping she could just go home, preferably have a certain silver-haired girl waiting for her there. She knew this would not happen and found it hard to focus on the game they had been playing. Having the Vice President around was hard, everything about her was too similar to Ririka but there was still something missing. She knew nobody else paid any attention to the small things, they had no reason to doubt any foul play. Ririka had been accompanying them lately a lot, usually as a bystander in everything and someone almost unnoticeable and at times, Mary was sure Yumeko and Suzui forgot that the Vice President was there.

The decoy was doing a fairly good job, staying in the background and not raising any suspicions. Mary's brain was working on overdrive, having Kirari posing as the Vice President must have meant that Ririka was acting as the head of the family somewhere. Mary was sure they wouldn't make a blunder of having two Kiraris or two Ririkas anywhere at the same time. She also realized that Ririka had known about this when they had a talk in the classroom before lunch and it made her stomach turn. Why hadn't she told everything and why was it bothering Mary so much? The blonde decided to divert her thoughts elsewhere, she wouldn't be getting any real answers for a week.

Mary surveyed the room, the first-year students seemed to be desperate and as their moves started to get bold, they were also easier to read. Yumeko seemed content of being the weirdest role model of a crazy gambler and drove the unsuspecting students to a corner constantly. Seeing the first-years take all the risks she was inciting them to take, the dark-haired girl seemed to be thrilled. Suzui was collecting easy profits, taking advantage of the openings Yumeko was creating. The Vice President sat quietly next to Mary and did not participate in their game. Mary was not sure if it was the mask or the fact that she was a student council member, but the other students seemed to be a bit afraid to even look at her direction.

Mary was aware that she was most probably coming off as distant and indifferent to the game. Having lost already a quite hefty amount of money, she decided to pay a bit more attention. Maybe having the game end sooner, she could finally go home and scream against her pillow to ease the anxiety.

* * *

The following days went by slowly for Mary. She still hadn't gotten used to the fact of having the fake Vice President following her everywhere and it made the school days very tiring. Mary was glad the weekend was approaching; it was Friday and already time for lunch. Seeing the Vice President's figure standing outside the classroom got Mary grinding her teeth again, another encounter she had to endure. She missed hearing Ririka's voice and the timid aura that nobody else seemed to notice was missing from the current imposter. Mary ignored the Vice President when she stepped to the hallway and headed straight to the cafeteria.

The emptiness Mary had been feeling since Ririka left was nagging Mary every minute. Seeing the masked girl kept messing with the blonde's head. Her mind registered the familiar sight and filled her head with the fuzzy feeling of excitement. It was soon followed by the bitter taste of her rational thought telling her brain that it was wrong. She tried staying at home and avoid all human contact, but found the minutes passing even slower when she was alone. She had no other means of contacting Ririka than through her twin sister, which she firmly decided she would use as her last resort. She tried to gamble, but it only made her more agitated when the opponents were uninspiring and easily defeated. Her usual days filled with activities now seemed somewhat grey and boring and she tried to remember what motivated her before Ririka forced her way into her life.

"Say, Yumeko, do you have any plans for the weekend?" Mary was trying to occupy her spare time with as much as she could.

"Oh? There's a new bakery opening tonight. They will even have a cake buffet!" Yumeko replied.

"Can I come too?" Mary wasn't exactly in the mood for sweets but was willing to take any distraction she could.

"Of course! Would you like to join us too, Ririka-san?" Yumeko asked, seemingly thrilled. Mary held her breath, this was not the outcome she wanted for the night.

"You're inviting me? I—"

"Heh, you had that other thing tonight, right?" Mary hurried to add. She gave the masked girl a stern look. "The Student Council business?"

"Nice of you to remind me, Mary-san. Please excuse me, I just remembered I need to take care of something right now. I will not be joining you for lunch. Have a nice weekend," the Vice President said with a small bow. She turned around on her heels and walked away, leaving Mary feeling rather relieved.

Yumeko had a puzzled look on her face, she stopped for a while and was lost in her thoughts.

"You coming?" Mary asked.

"I'm sorry, Mary. Did I say something wrong?" Yumeko asked quietly.

"What? No. Why do you ask?" Mary's heart started racing. She had a reason to comply with Kirari's demands and she made a promise to Ririka too.

"Did you two have a fight? With Ririka-san, I mean." Yumeko frowned.

"Ah—well, something like that, yeah," Mary said and hoped the master gambler wouldn't read anything more of the situation.

"I'm sure you can work it out! Oh, the invitation for the party tonight said it's a formal black-tie event." Yumeko changed the subject to Mary's relief. The relief was short-lived, though.

"WHAT?! I can't wear… I don't even own a dress that fancy," Mary said regretting her decisions already.

"Don't worry about it, we'll go to buy you a new one after school! Oh, that will be fun! _Please~~ _Come with me tonight," Yumeko pleaded.

"Ugh—fine." Mary resigned. She felt self-conscious but was sure it would get her mind off from Ririka for a while. "But it's _not_ a date or anything, so don't you get any funny ideas…"

* * *

Mary was staring at the strange reflection in her mirror. Her hair was pulled up in a neat bun and she was wearing a rather expensive red dress. The layers of make-up on her face felt weird too, she usually just applied a carefree layer of mascara and occasionally some lip-gloss. Yumeko was lurking behind her back, beaming ear to ear.

"You look beautiful! I knew this was a good idea!"

"I feel like this is not me at all. Heck, maybe that's a good thing," Mary said while taking closer look at herself.

"Of course, it is. But we need to get going, the event has already started. Good thing you live so close to the centrum. We could just walk from here." Yumeko suggested.

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm not walking in these heels; I'll pay for the taxi." Mary resisted.

"Can I leave my things here and pick them up when we leave?" Yumeko pointed at the mountain of make-up and her change of clothes she grabbed from her apartment on their way.

"Sure. If it's too late, I have futon you can use." Mary said, not thinking too much about inviting Yumeko to stay overnight.

* * *

The event was a blast, Mary felt glad she had taken up on Yumeko's offer. The girls had fun coming up with various polite but passive-aggressive responses to some advances from random men attending the party. Yumeko shot a few curious looks when Mary used half-confessions as her excuses why she wouldn't want to go out with the guys. She confronted Mary later during the evening.

"So, what's all of this '_I'm dating someone wearing a mask?' _all about?" Yumeko poked the blonde's sides playfully.

"W-what? Nothing… Just popped into my head," Mary said defensively, turning slightly red.

"And '_I need to go home to take care of my twins'_ then?" Yumeko laughed.

"Eeh—what do you mean? I'm old enough to have babies." Mary said, also laughing.

"So, what's really going on with you and Ririka?" Yumeko suddenly asked. "I'm not blind, Mary-san. I'm also your friend so you can tell me anything."

Mary stopped laughing. She tried to think of a way out of the situation but saw her friend's face and knew she wouldn't give the subject up.

"Let's just say it's complicated." Mary wasn't lying.

"What is complicated? You both obviously like each other." Yumeko was stating the obvious.

"Well, _maybe._ But she is not telling me everything, which makes it hard to know what she's going through," Mary said, surprised at her own conclusions of the past events.

"So, something happened and she can't tell you what is wrong, then?" Yumeko caught on quick.

"Uh—something like that, yeah. I think it's because she _can't _tell me, not because she doesn't want to." Mary was glad she could talk about her feelings with someone.

"Uh-huh. So, it's some family or school business then?" Yumeko concluded. "My guess is that this has something to do with the President, right?"

"Heh. Yeah, that's pretty accurate," Mary said with an awkward smile.

"I'm rooting for you, anyway. The President should stay away from this, it's none of her business." Yumeko said seriously.

"Damn right. I might take up on that and tell her next week." Mary was determined and sure what she needed to do. "Thank you, Yumeko. This was really insightful."

* * *

The two girls eventually arrived back to Mary's place with a taxi. The blonde paid for the fee, as she had promised she would, and they got off. Mary was searching for her keys when Yumeko grabbed her chin. For a second Mary got panicked that Yumeko would try something funny. Her chin was turned and pointed at another direction and the blonde's mind went from panic to excitement and then ended up getting riled up. A black town car was parked close to the curb and a silver-haired girl with a mask stepped outside.

Mary shove the small clutch she was holding to Yumeko and started walking up to the car.

"HOW DARE YOU, JUST WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR PROBLEM—" Mary was getting anxious but the girl running towards her and throwing her arms around her caught her by surprise.

After a few confusing seconds Mary returned the embrace and held the girl tightly with tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Riri."


	5. Chapter 5

Hello guys, sorry if this took a while. I keep this story more frequently updated on my AO3.

-Nova

.

* * *

The town car pulled away, leaving Ririka on the curb, still holding Mary in her embrace. They might have stood there longer if Yumeko hadn't caught their attention by clearing her throat. Mary pulled off and remembered the dress and the whole get up she was wearing.

"Uh, yeah, right. We just came back from an opening party for a new fancy bakery in the centrum." She tried to explain her strange appearance.

"Sorry for interrupting your night," Ririka said and Mary cringed slightly at the sound of the distorted voice through the mask.

"No, you're not interrupting anything." Mary reached out to remove the mask from the silver-haired girl. "But this needs to go, OK?"

Ririka blushed a bit when the mask came off.

Mary took Ririka's hand and lead her to the front door. Yumeko was grinning widely at the two but said nothing. She handed the small clutch back to Mary and she started to look for the keys. Ririka was the first one to speak and Mary was slightly surprised.

"Hello, Jabami-san. I did not mean to interrupt your night, my apologies." She gave a small polite bow.

"Don't worry about it, Ririka-san. I thought we were over with the formalities; you can call me Yumeko."

Mary's shoulders tensed a bit. She had totally forgotten the fact that Yumeko barely knew anything what was going on. She had found the keys and jolted to the door. "OK, we're in. Yumeko left some stuff at my place but was on her way back home, _right_?"

Yumeko was on board with the whole situation. "Yeah, I was on my way back home after this. Don't worry, I'll leave you two alone."

Mary ignored her teasing attempts and walked to the elevator. The whole ride upstairs went by in silence. Mary was feeling self-conscious in her unusual clothing, Yumeko took turns to examine both of the girls and Ririka was just being her own quiet self.

The awkward atmosphere followed them to the apartment. Mary was about to go and change but Yumeko stopped her.

"No, wait! I'll gather my things quickly and leave, could you call me another taxi?"

"Uhm… yeah, of course." Mary started to dial the number on her phone and glanced at Ririka to see if she was doing OK. The silver-haired girl looked uncomfortable and kept eyeing Yumeko carefully while she was gathering her things scattered around the apartment.

Mary walked up to Ririka whilst talking on the phone. She coyly ran her fingers on the back of the older girl's hand earning a small smile and a deeper shade of pink on the cheekbones.

Mary had just finished the call when she heard Yumeko clear her throat a bit.

"I'm ready. Sorry to intrude, I'm going downstairs to wait for the taxi now," Yumeko said, slightly lifting the bag in her hands.

"No, I'm the one who's intruding. There's no need for you to leave, I can just quickly—" Ririka was trying to be polite.

"Shush, you two have a good night! See you on Monday, both of you." Yumeko earned a glare of '_Please, shut up!_' from the blonde. Mary was getting anxious to be alone with Ririka so she ushered Yumeko to the door.

"Thanks for the evening! See you next week," Mary was holding the door open. Yumeko gave her a last mischievous grin before disappearing to the hallway.

Letting out a heavy sigh she didn't even notice she was holding she returned to Ririka. The silver-haired girl was still looking bashful as ever.

"Everything OK?" Mary asked, noticing the girl was avoiding eye-contact.

Took a while for Ririka to give an answer. Mary was getting worried when she examined the girl in front of her hesitating with her response.

"Kirari showed up…" Ririka quietly started. Mary was already quite sure where this was going.

"She did?"

"She told me to return here. Told me you were going—" Ririka barely had time to finish her sentence when Mary jumped in.

"_On a date?" _Mary asked.

"Mmhm." Ririka replied, turning her gaze to the ground and looked embarrassed.

"Well, did it look like a date to you?" Mary pried, knowing she might be pushing the timid girl a bit too far.

"No." Ririka shot her a careful sideways look.

"So why are you acting so weird?" Mary asked, trying not to come off too offensive. She took a step closer and gently placed her hand on the other side of Ririka's head and turned it towards herself.

"You don't look like yourself tonight," Ririka said, Mary's hand still resting on her cheek.

"Oh, right… Gimme a sec, I'll get changed." Cheeks burning red, Mary was about to turn around and head towards the bathroom.

"No… I didn't mean you need to change…" Ririka paused for a while and Mary waited for what she had to say. "I just meant you look really beautiful tonight."

"Oh… thanks… But I'm still going to get changed, this doesn't really feel like my thing at all." Mary said, edging towards the bathroom. "Just make yourself at home, I'll be back in a sec."

Mary held back a chuckle when she returned and saw the other girl obediently waiting for her, sitting on her bed. She walked up to join her and sat down next to her.

"You don't really know what the phrase means, do you? _Make yourself at home,_" Mary asked, still hiding her amusement not to offend the older girl.

"Can't say that I do. Did I do something wrong?" Ririka asked and looked a lot more at ease with Mary now that she had the excessive make-up removed and was wearing a cozy t-shirt and college pants. Her blonde hair hung loose, she hadn't felt like pulling it up on her usual twin-tails, she wasn't exactly planning on leaving anywhere later.

"Not at all," Mary said and leaned in closer to plant a small kiss on the soft lips she had missed so much. She let her forehead rest against Ririka's temple. "Could you stay with me here tonight?"

"I would like that, if it's not too much trouble?" Ririka replied quietly. Mary was glad to see her smile a bit.

"There's no trouble at all! Would you like me to get you a more comfortable shirt to sleep in?" Mary asked and leaned back a bit, taking notice of the rather formal clothing the other girl was wearing. Ririka nodded and Mary got up to retrieve an extra shirt.

She returned with a plain white t-shirt that was the first one she found.

"Need anything else?" The blonde asked, handing the shirt over to Ririka. Ririka shook her head.

Mary realized she should give her some privacy. "Uh—I'm going to get a glass of water. You can get changed if you want to, I won't watch. I promise."

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Mary was getting impatient to go back and tell Ririka all about the awful week she had with Kirari. Any trace of the anxiety she might've been harboring disappeared though when the silver-haired girl appeared in the kitchen doorway, wearing only the t-shirt she had been given a moment ago. The blush on Ririka's cheeks was deep shade of crimson and Mary felt a wave of warm and fuzzy feelings wash over her.

"I probably should've given you a bit more than a t-shirt to wear," Mary said, taking a few steps forward and was close enough to close her arms around the helplessly flushed girl.

"No, this is fine." Ririka replied and nuzzled her head against the crook of Mary's neck.

"We should probably get to bed, I don't want you to get cold," Mary said, sounding concerned of her guest's well-being. The silver-haired head nodded in response and Mary led her to the bed.

Once comfortably under the sheets, Ririka was cuddled in Mary's arms and the blonde's thoughts returned to the past few days. She wanted to ask about the trip and its purpose, what had she been doing and why Kirari had been acting as the Vice President. She was torn with the internal conflict, part of her needed to know everything that was going on, screaming for answers. The other part was happy and ecstatic to be holding the bundle of cuteness, wanting to tell her everything was going to be alright and the only thing that mattered was that they were together now.

Mary watched curiously as Ririka brought the sheets to her face and inhaled deeply.

"What are you doing?" Mary asked slightly amused.

"Everything here smells like you," Ririka said and tilted her head a bit to meet Mary's eyes.

"Well, I live here so… It's probably just the fabric softener I use, though." Mary looked thoughtful.

"What is that?" Ririka raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I don't remember the brand, but the scent was strawberries if I remember correctly…" Mary replied.

"Oh… I meant—never mind." Ririka looked away, blushing.

"Wait… You don't know what fabric softener _is_, right? That's what you meant?" Mary smiled. "Have you ever had to wash your own laundry?"

Ririka kept avoiding Mary's gaze. Took her a while to finally answer quietly. "No."

Mary suddenly felt very intrigued and thought of other ordinary tasks normal people went through daily.

"Okay, this might actually be a fun guessing game. If I guess a thing you haven't had to do, I get a kiss? If you have done it, you can decide your own reward. Wanna play?" A mischievous smile spread across Mary's face.

"Are you making fun of me?" Ririka asked and pouted.

"No, not at all. You know so many of my daily activities, I just want to get to know some of yours." Mary chuckled at the thought of the folder that was lying somewhere in Ririka's drawers.

"I guess it's fair, then. But kissing you isn't exactly a punishment for me," Ririka said, turning her face back to look at Mary.

"Never said it'd be a punishment, just my _reward._"

"Fine. Go ahead, guess." Ririka agreed to the rules.

"Hmm… OK." Mary took a while to think of something. "Well, have you ever cooked a meal?"

"No, I haven't." Ririka answered and gave Mary her reward.

"Hmm, yeah, I think I like this game… Uhm… Have you ever used a vacuum cleaner?" the blonde was already preparing for the next kiss and let her hand slide around the back of the other girl's neck. Ririka smiled and leaned in for another kiss. The reward was lengthier than the last one.

"I'll take that as a _no._" Mary said breathlessly. "Changed the bed linen?"

"No." Ririka managed to say before she kissed the blonde again.

The questions and rewards went on for a while. The kissing got gradually longer with each turn. It wasn't before Mary got to asking if she had ever ridden a bus when Ririka pulled back a little.

"I've been in a bus for some of the school trips. What was my reward again?" Ririka's head was a little dizzy from all the kissing.

"Uhm… You can decide what you want," Mary said, already feeling impatient to get the girl back to kissing her again. Ririka took a moment to think about her options.

"Hmm… Would you teach me how to do all those things you just asked me?" Ririka finally asked. Out of all the possible options, Mary hadn't expected _this_ to be the one that Ririka would have asked for.

"Wait—what? You want to know how to wash laundry?" Mary was taken aback.

"That and everything else you do, Mary." The blue eyes stared with determination.

"You're _not_ joking, are you?" Mary asked with disbelief. Ririka shook her head. "Fine. I'll show you; I was planning to do most of the things on that list this weekend anyway before I knew you were going to show up here."

The morning dawned and Mary woke up first. Her face lit up and a smile formed on her lips when she saw strands of silver hair splayed across the sheets next to her. The older girl's face looked peaceful and Mary brushed her fingers softly on Ririka's cheek and tried to remember when they had fallen asleep. The conversations filled with kisses in between had went on until late last night. Mary was about to get up and make some breakfast but remembered she was supposed to teach Ririka how to make some, so she decided to wait for the other girl to wake up.

Ririka eventually opened her eyes and saw the blonde staring back at her.

"Morning, Riri. Did you sleep well?" Mary was affectionately running her fingers through the silver hair.

"Mmhm. Good morning… I'm not dreaming this, am I?" A smile curled on the sleepy girl's lips.

"No, silly. You're not."

"Good. It's a bit strange to wake up here. Feels like a dream," Ririka mumbled and snuggled closer to Mary. "Can we stay like this for a while?"

"We could, but there's a whole list of chores you wanted to help me with today, so we'd better get started soon." Mary teased. "Or have you changed your mind? Honestly… I wouldn't mind if you had."

"No, I haven't. I was serious, I want to know how to do all those things," Ririka said while pulling away and propped herself up on her elbows. "What do we start with?"

Mary chuckled and sat up. "You're a bit weird, Riri. Never met anyone so excited to do house chores before."

"Well, I wouldn't like you to think less of me. I don't want you to see me as a spoiled brat who has everything delivered to them on a silver platter," Ririka said with a serious face.

"Whoa—Wait… I never said anything like that." Mary protested. "I _know_ you're not like that, you don't need to prove anything."

"The only thing I'm trying to prove here is how much I like you, Mary." Ririka observed the red tint rise on the blonde's cheeks. "So, what do we start with?"

Mary took a deep breath to gather herself. "Breakfast."

After getting most of the things on the list done, the apartment was getting sparkling clean. Mary was constantly amused of how Ririka could find such small details interesting. They had even gone as far as to check a laundry machine manual for all the different programs Mary never felt a need to use or wasn't sure what they were meant for. Mary suggested after they were done with all the cleaning that they should go to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for dinner.

"Is curry OK? I don't really know how to cook anything special," Mary asked.

"If that is what you would normally cook, then curry works fine for me." Ririka was beaming. Mary gave the enthusiastic girl her 100th look of disbelief of the day.

"Then curry it is."

Cooking the meal had proven to be another lengthy task, Mary had been explaining and demonstrating the use of almost every household item she had in her kitchen. After Ririka managed to cut herself while slicing vegetables Mary took over the rest of the cooking. Ririka hunched over her shoulder and observed every move the blonde made.

"How do you know how to do all this?" Ririka asked.

Mary stopped stirring the sauce for a while and thought about it for a moment. "I guess it's because I've been helping my mother around the kitchen since I was a kid."

"You must have been a cute child…" Ririka seemed to drift off in her thoughts for a while. "Do you have any pictures?"

Mary felt uneasy and she was not quite sure why. "No, but there's lots of pictures at my parents' house."

"I want to go there someday," Ririka said and was oblivious of the other girl's discomfort of the subject.

Mary turned around and her heartbeat was getting a bit faster. "Wait—You want to meet my parents?"

"Well, yes. But mostly because of the pictures of little Mary." Ririka smirked.

"Uhm… That's… Do you even know what you are asking?" Mary blushed heavily.

"I'm guessing it's something embarrassing, judging by the shade of your face right now." Ririka teased. "What's so embarrassing about old pictures?"

"You dolt… never mind. Could you set the table? The food is nearly done. You know where to find the plates and everything else," Mary said and turned back to face the stove.

Mary didn't say much as they sat down to eat. Her mind was occupied with thoughts she had been pushing away since Ririka appeared. The silence was broken when Ririka's spoon made a loud sound when it dropped on the plate. Mary was suddenly awoken from her thoughts and she noticed the silver-haired girl was shaking slightly and holding back silent sobs.

"Hey, you OK? Did I say something I shouldn't have?" Mary sounded worried.

"No…" Ririka said quietly. "I'm just—the food is…"

"The food is not good? You don't have to eat it if—"

"No, it's the best thing I've ever eaten." Ririka started sobbing.

"You're crying because of this curry?" Mary knew there was something else the other girl was not telling. She reached across the table and touched Ririka's hand gently.

"Yes… Well, no." Ririka looked up and started drying her eyes with her sleeve. She took a few long breaths to gather herself. "I'm just so happy here, I don't know how else to say it."

"So, happy tears?" Mary was still suspicious but Ririka's nodding was sufficient enough and she refrained from prying any further. "Well, you surprised me today. To be honest, I never thought cleaning up this apartment would be so much fun."

Ririka laughed a bit. "Really?"

"Yeah. I had fun with you, Riri. And I think—" Mary took a breath and mumbled the rest awkwardly. "I think I'm happy too."

Ririka sighed in relief and returned to her curry. Mary gave a few curious looks at the silver-haired girl, trying to figure out what the sudden burst was all about.

"So… Ririka, what exactly do you think that _this_ is?"

"What is?" Ririka asked perplexed and tried to look for the answers on the blonde's face that had suddenly turned serious.

"You and me. _This._" Mary held her breath.

Ririka was staring quietly at Mary who kept avoiding a direct eye contact. "I'm not sure what you want me to say, Mary."

"It's not about what I want you to say. I guess I just want to know if—" Mary took a long breath and stared at the half-eaten dinner in front of her. "I just _need_ to know how serious you want this to be." She added quietly.

"Told you I'm serious about this, Mary." Ririka said, smile disappearing from her face.

"I know… But what do you mean with that exactly? Are we dating? Do you want to—No, do you _have to_ keep this a secret?" Mary felt her heart trying to hammer its way out of her chest.

"I just know that I want to be with you, Mary. I don't know how that will work. But I want to find out, that's why I'm here." Ririka was getting her eyes teary again.

"You came here because Kirari gave you a permission, didn't you?" Surprised that the words left her mouth before she could stop them, Mary knew there was no turning back now. There were questions she didn't want answered and she had just asked one of them. Swallowing back her own tears she slowly raised her head to glance at the silver-haired girl sitting across the table.

Ririka's breathing had gotten heavy and Mary's heart dropped at the sight of the girl in front of her crumbling. "That's not fair, Mary."

The blonde wanted to jump across the table to comfort the almost sobbing girl. She cursed herself in her mind for bringing the subject up. Having Ririka around was everything she never knew she wanted. She didn't want it to end. Knowing that she was asking too much from Ririka, asking her to make her own decisions and go against her family didn't make the situation any easier. Mary saw how torn Ririka was with everything, she understood the situation was complicated as it was, and she hated herself for just making it even harder for the older girl.

"So, do you want me to _leave?_" Ririka was having trouble getting her words out and the last syllables were barely coherent due to her chin wobbling.

"Hey—what, no! Of course, I don't!" Mary felt like the air had escaped her lungs.

"The only thing I've wanted for the past few days was to be with you, given permissions or not—" Ririka's voice trailed off.

"I should've never said anything about that, Riri. I'm sorry." Mary apologized and the chair screeched against the floor when she rose up. She held out her hand for Ririka. "I don't care what brought you here. The only thing I care about is that you are here now. Please don't leave."

Ririka grabbed the hand and got up on her feet. Ririka wrapped her hands around Mary.

"Don't apologize, please. What is happening with my family is not your fault," Ririka said quietly against Mary's ear. Mary held the taller girl mid-waist and pulled her closer.

"No need to talk about it, if you don't want to." Mary replied and wanted to push the subject off her mind.

"If it was up to me, I would tell you everything." Ririka sounded thoroughly defeated.

"I know." Mary tightened her hold of the other girl. This was the first time Mary noticed how tired Ririka was.

This time the silence was welcome.

AN: Japanese people usually eat curry with a spoon. Just in case if someone was wondering.


	6. Chapter 6

Riritop is real, yo. More notes after the chapter..

-Nova

.

* * *

Mary broke the silence a few minutes later still holding Ririka tightly around her waist. "I feel like I could use a shower… Would you care to join me?" Her initial idea was to cheer the other girl up a bit but she noticed the reaction her words had when they sank in. The slightly taller girl tensed up and inhaled sharply. "I mean, only if you feel comfortable enough. I just thought it might be nice. Some _skinship_ as a reward for everything you did today." Mary wished her playful teasing hadn't went too far to scare Ririka even further.

Shallow breaths and a burning red face that emerged from the crook of her neck proved Mary's worries to be for nothing. Ririka charged at the blonde's lips and drew her into a heated kiss. If it wasn't for the icky feeling after cleaning and working all day, Mary would have given into the urges without a second thought. She decided to break the kiss and laughed softly. "I'll take that as a _yes_."

Eventually standing in the bathroom with only their underwear, Mary had a few second doubts about her earlier proposition. She stole a few glances at the older girl and her nearly perfect figure, but the doubts were cleared off her mind when Ririka returned her gaze with passion clouding her eyes. The silver haired girl leaned in and planted a small kiss on Mary's shoulder. She obviously felt encouraged when Mary's breath hitched and took a step closer, pressing her front against the blonde's back. More kisses were administrated along the shoulder, closing Mary's neck and she gave the eager girl more access by tilting her head on the side.

"R-Riri, we were supposed to—" her voice faded when the other girl's hand wandered down her stomach.

"But I like how your skin tastes now," Ririka said, venturing lower with her hand. A small whining sound escaped the blonde's mouth when the hand slipped under the rubber band of her panties.

"That's…" Mary tried to talk but soft trail the fingers left across her mound distracted her thoughts. Her own hand found the other girl's wrist, but she had no willpower left to draw it away. "…dirty."

Ririka's kisses trailed and met with the shell of Mary's ear. "Oh, I bet it is." The warm breath and the slightly cocky tone in Ririka's voice had Mary squeezing the wrist in her hand and her hips pushing back against Ririka's warm skin. "But I just thought I'd give you a hint of what I want to do later."

The fingers were still tracing lazy patterns around Mary's sensitive parts. Quite close enough to get her mind swirling to a fuzzy mess but keeping far enough to make the craving inside her grow fast to a point where she was aching for more precise movements. The fingers stopped for a moment and Mary let out a frustrated growl. "Who said you can stop now?"

Mary felt her own bra slide off and hit the tile floor with an almost inaudible thump. She had been so focused on what was going on down between her legs that she failed to pay any attention to what the other girl had been doing. Mary shivered when a warm breath tickled her ear. "Oh, I'm not quite done demonstrating yet."

The blonde enjoyed the enthusiasm Ririka was treating her with. It was almost as if the older girl was as impatient as she was. Though there was nothing imprecise of what followed when the other hand found the supple breast and cupped it. The soft but firm brushes Ririka administrated with her thumb against Mary's nipples coaxed audible moans out of her. The other hand found the drenched slit between her legs it had been avoiding so far and Mary let go of the arm to take support from the nearby counter.

"F-fuck…" Mary managed to cry out when Ririka applied a perfect amount of pressure on her clit and she had trouble staying focused on standing up. Judging by the quickened pants against her ear and the way the other girl was pressing herself against her back, Mary came to a quick conclusion that Ririka was also enjoying herself and this only added to her own arousal. She closed her eyes for a moment and made sure to jerk her hips back with each movement Ririka made with her fingers.

Warm waves of pleasure washed over Mary and the simultaneous stimuli applied on her overly sensitive spots was driving her over the edge. "Nngh… Riri…" Mary tried to speak but only earned a small gasp from the other girl breathing heavily against her ear when her name was mentioned in the most affectionate way. "I can't… If you keep going like that—shit…"

"I want you to cum for me, Mary." Ririka managed to say with a strained voice.

Mary bit down on her lip and let herself go, the feelings washing over her felt like she was riding warm waves where everything blended to a one succulent bliss. For a moment, she was lost in a euphoric sensation where she wasn't sure anymore where her own body ended and Ririka's started. All her mind registered were the bright lights of the bathroom blending in her vision to a one shiny blur and when she came to, she was pretty sure she heard herself cry out Ririka's name before her body clenched uncontrollably. Had it not been the support from Ririka's arms, she would have fallen hard on her knees on the cold floor.

Ririka affectionately laid kisses on her neck while continuing to support her. Mary was trying to catch her breath before she steadied herself against the counter and turned around. "What the actual fuck… That was… W-what was that?"

"Hmm? You've never had—" Ririka was looking at Mary puzzled.

"Of course, I have! Just… normal ones. That was_ intense_." Mary was still trembling with the aftershocks.

Ririka's lips curled to a smile. Had Mary not known her better, she'd think it was even a bit smug. "Well, I'm glad you liked it."

* * *

The whole evening passed with insatiable moments of exploring each other's limits and with their bodies entwined in heated pleasure. They ended up taking another shower after both felt completely exhausted. After getting a quick shower together, considerably less heated one compared to the first, they crawled under the sheets.

"Do you really have to leave tomorrow?" Mary asked, holding the other girl tight in her arms.

"Yes," Ririka said quietly.

Mary tried to examine her to see why she suddenly seemed to be a bit down. "Hey, is everything OK?"

"It's… I don't want to talk about it," Ririka started to speak and tried to find words to explain herself. "But I wish I could just stay here with you like this forever."

"I wouldn't mind if you hung around here a bit more." Mary nuzzled closer to her lover.

"Just a bit more?" Tone was not as light-hearted as Mary would've expected but she decided to push the questions out of her mind.

"A lot more."

* * *

Sunday morning was as pleasant for Mary as it had been on the previous morning. Waking up next to someone was surprisingly comfortable for her. When she opened her eyes and saw Ririka still sound asleep, a strong wave of affection flushed over her when she remembered the events from the past night. Soft chuckle escaped her lips when the other girl was mumbling nonsense in her sleep.

"What was that?" Mary leaned in closer and tried to get Ririka to talk.

"Mmmngh. Not pineapple." Ririka frowned and turned her head.

"Are you sure? Pineapple is pretty good," Mary said, continuing the mysterious conversation with a huge grin spread across her face.

"That's not… Mary doesn't like it in curry," Ririka mumbled.

Mary laughed and poked the soft cheek with her index finger. "Well, you're absolutely right. I would never want pineapple in my curry!"

"W-what?" Ririka opened her eyes.

"My curry. I'd like it without pineapple, please." Mary smirked.

Ririka blinked her eyes a few times before turning to face the grinning blonde. "Oh—was I talking in my sleep?"

Mary nodded and planted a kiss on Ririka's cheek.

"Are you making fun of me?" Ririka feigned being hurt. "That's rude."

"I know, couldn't resist." Mary teased. "Breakfast?"

Ririka nodded but when she realized it would mean the blonde would get up and leave, she changed her mind and tightened her grip and pulled Mary closer. "Not yet. I want to stay like this for a while."

"Of course," Mary said and planted a small kiss on the girl's forehead.

* * *

The two had managed to get out of bed and eaten the breakfast before noon. After a careful examination of Mary's DVD collection, Ririka had decided on a drama series she wanted to see. Episodes played on the background, but they seemed to be more focused on each other and the TV was mainly open for a background noise.

"Oh, meant to ask you this before, but why forgot. Do you have a cell phone?" Mary suddenly remembered the anxiety of not being able to contact Ririka when she was away.

"No, sorry, I don't."

"Why?" Mary found it hard to believe anyone would survive without one.

"I just never needed one. I could get one if you want me to." Ririka looked thoughtful.

"Well it'd be nice to hear from you when you're away." Mary leaned in closer.

"I… yeah, it would be nice," Ririka said getting quiet again.

"Well, I'm going to give you my number in case you ever get your hands on a phone." Mary smiled and reached for her bag to find a piece of paper and a pen. Ririka watched curiously at the blonde and took the piece of paper handed to her. She held it like it was the most precious thing she had ever received. Mary laughed softly. "It's just my number, just realized you probably have it in your folder anyway."

"It's not the same thing. You gave this to me," Ririka said, staring at the simple piece of paper.

Mary looked at the girl and got an idea while watching Ririka being mesmerized by something so simple. She took another piece of paper and wrote something on it, blocking it from Ririka's view.

"What is that?" Ririka tried to see what Mary was scribbling but the blonde refused to show her.

"You'll know when you need to," Mary said mysteriously and continued writing until she was satisfied with whatever she had gotten down on the note. "OK, so I'm going to fold this carefully and you can not open this yet, understood?"

"O-okay. When can I open it?" The look on Ririka's face was making Mary smile. It was like a puppy following a treat waved in front of their face. Mary tried to move her hand around a bit to see if her theory held and grinned when the blue eyes darted after the hand with the note on it. Ririka caught on quick and pouted. "You're teasing me again, Mary."

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Mary continued grinning but stopped her teasing and placed the note in Ririka's hand. "You can only open it when you miss me so much you can't take it anymore."

"Hmm… Can I write you something too, then?" Ririka asked after placing both notes carefully in her pocket.

"Sure, here." Mary handed the pen and paper to Ririka and turned to look away. She kept staring out of the window for a long while before she got tired of waiting and turned back to the other girl. "Are you ready yet?"

Mary was surprised to see the other girl looking back at her with the most painful expression she had yet seen. "I'm going to miss you so much, Mary."

"Whoa, hey, I'm still here." Mary crawled closer and closed her arms around the girl who was on a verge of breaking into tears. The sharp loud noise of the door buzzer rang suddenly. Mary watched as Ririka's face turned white.

"Hey, you don't have to—" Mary started but the buzzer rang again. She winced at the loud sound but kept looking at Ririka and waited for her to say something.

"No, I need to do this. If everything goes as planned, I should be back by Wednesday." She stood up and headed towards the genkan. "How can I use this thing?"

"Just pick up the receiver and talk." Mary got up on her feet and took hurried steps after Ririka.

Ririka did as advised and picked the receiver. "Hello… Yes, it's me. I'll be down in a bit."

After ending the call, Ririka turned to look for her shoes and was met with Mary who pulled her close. "I'll miss you. And tell your sister she should think of some excuse not to follow me with your mask on. It's creeping me out."

"Oh? I didn't know she followed you around…" Ririka looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'll definitely ask her not to do so. If it's any consolation, it's actually _me_ who's not attending school next week."

"Ugh, the whole ordeal is confusing enough as it is. But I guess, yeah, it's definitely easier." Mary didn't want to let go of Ririka. Ririka frowned but stayed quiet.

"I just want you to know this weekend meant a lot to me." The silver-haired girl's voice was fading.

"It meant a lot to me too, and it's just a few days until it's Wednesday. I'll survive." Mary tried to give the other girl an encouraging smile. She lifted her chin and a stole one last kiss from Ririka. The gloomy looking girl slipped her note in Mary's hand before stepping out of the door.

* * *

Kirari was already sitting on the back seat when Ririka entered and joined her. It only took a quick glance before Kirari spoke up.

"You're not wearing your mask."

"Oh… right. Must have forgotten it somewhere." Ririka said quietly without any intention of trying to relocate it.

"Never mind the mask. Did you get to say everything you wanted to?" Kirari asked with a nonchalant tone.

"I—couldn't…" Ririka's voice faded as tears started to form in her eyes.

"How long did you plan to wait?! You do realize you'll just end up hurting her? After the stunt the council pulled on… well—let's not go there." Kirari didn't have to turn her head to know her sister was falling apart next to her. "You won't get to wear the mask tomorrow; your eyes will be puffy. Just pull it together."

* * *

...

So... Sorry for the cliffhanger and slightly shorter chapter. Work and life are killing me right now and my updates are lagging a bit.

But thanks for following the story and please leave comments and let me know what you think! :3

-Nova


	7. Chapter 7

Hello! I've been busy with real life obligations and just felt like I needed a break so this chapter was my get-away from all of it. Thank god, it's almost xmas so I get to breathe(and write some moar)

This chapter needed a bit of juggling with POVs, apologies in advance, I separated the thing with page breaks so it should not be too horrible :3

-Nova

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* * *

The blue eyes that stared back from the mirror did look puffy and Ririka noticed the dark rings under her eyes. The guilt had eaten her from the inside so much, she didn't feel much else besides the emptiness it had left. She wished she could go back to the Sunday afternoon to explain everything to Mary. Somehow the thought of telling about her arranged marriage _after_ getting married didn't seem like the best approach. The life after the marriage would continue quite the same it had been before; she would still finish her studies and had no intention of being romantically involved with anyone besides Mary.

The marriage itself had been arranged long time ago, Ririka had always known about it, never questioned there would be any other direction her life would take. Not before she met Mary anyway. Kirari had been strict about the rules for many years, their family affairs were their own and nobody else was to know. When she had showed up on the family estate a few days ago, Ririka was surprised to see her sister changing her mind about at least some of the previous agreements. The twins had turned 18 during their summer break which Kirari used as a vague excuse to express that they now had a lot more freedom.

Ririka was so lost in her thoughts she barely registered the staff fussing around her. A sharp tuck on the delicate hair on the back of her neck made her flinch. She took another glance at the mirror. Her hair was now pulled up neatly and the woman was trying to fit large decorative pieces into the bun. All the pieces felt as painful as what they looked like. Today she would have to hold a tea ceremony for some important guests and later attend a formal dinner with her fiancé's family. Everything was going as planned to every small detail someone had probably decided before she had even been born. She had done well living up to the expectations of her family so far but still couldn't help but to feel like the biggest failure in the history.

* * *

"Mary-chan, please cheer up a bit!" Yumeko poked her friend playfully on the side. "Did something happen on Friday after I left?"

Mary lifted her gaze from the unopened melon bread package. She had suddenly remembered what Ririka had said about her eating habits and gotten lost in her thoughts. "No…I mean—yes. Things happened. _A lot_ of things."

"Oh? Good things I hope?" Yumeko frowned.

"Well—yeah. There was just something else yesterday I can't just quite figure out," Mary said and fumbled her pocket for the small letter Ririka had left her. She kept it with her but didn't want to open it yet. Yumeko eyed the uninteresting looking paper curiously before it disappeared back to Mary's pockets.

"Has anyone ever said you have some weird habits with certain things?" Yumeko asked slightly amused.

"Like what?" Mary blushed but the conversation started to feel familiar.

"I've seen you start grabbing things when you get emotional, usually from your pockets. And it's never what I think it would be."

"Shut up," Mary said. She wondered how many people had noticed the same thing. "Ririka said something like that too."

"She has a keen eye, then. What else did she say?" Yumeko smiled and nudged Mary on the shoulder.

"She said—no… Why should I tell you?" Mary blushed when she noticed she almost started to babble about things related to Ririka. She didn't want to be the person who never shut up about the person they were interested in.

"Because I'm your friend."

"Right… I'm still not telling you any details." Mary got lost thinking about the said details and a stupid grin spread across her face.

"I just… I don't want you to get hurt," Yumeko said and grabbed Mary's hand. "I'm related to the Momobamis, remember?"

"So, you know something you think I don't know?!" Mary nearly jumped up from the cafeteria chair.

"Ah—can't really be sure what you know if you don't tell me." Yumeko teased and looked a bit uncomfortable.

"I… can't tell you everything. I made a promise. But Ririka was acting really strange yesterday before she left." Mary dug up the piece of paper from her pocket again and idly played around with the corners with her fingertips.

"Yesterday? So, she spent the whole weekend with you?" Yumeko grinned and Mary blushed heavily.

"W-what makes you think…" Mary cursed her big mouth. For all she knew, Yumeko could have been just playing with her to get more gossip. "OK, fine. She spent the weekend at my place. Happy now?"

"Yes. But only if you are."

"I am." Mary blurted out.

"Good. So, what's the deal with that note?"

"I gave her one too and told her she can't open it before she misses me so much that she absolutely has to." Mary suppressed her curiosity to open hers and put the letter away. "So, I'll do the same. It's been less than 24 hours. I'm not _that _weak."

"Oh! That sounds really romantic! Whose idea was that?" Yumeko asked.

"Mine…"

"You're so nice to Ririka, it almost makes me jealous." Yumeko pretended to be upset and pouted her lips.

"Geez, just… shut up," Mary said and rolled her eyes, but her words lacked the usual snappy punch.

* * *

Ririka curled up under the thin blankets on the hard futon sprawled on the floor. She missed the warmth and the smell of Mary's bed. The night was turning out to be quite cold and the old traditional building was drafty, even with the extra blanket it was chilly. The evening had been exhausting and she had been distracted by her thoughts so much that other people made remarks about her distant behavior. She had been waiting for the moment she could be alone in her room but now that she was, she felt even lonelier than usual.

The nights she had spent in the same room last week felt distant. Back then she could count the days she had left before she would see Mary again. Now the thought of confronting Mary made her stomach turn and she felt the familiar panic settling in her chest again. She grabbed on to the blankets tighter and swallowed back the tears that were already burning her eyes.

_I should have told her everything. _

_Please, don't hate me, Mary._

She couldn't stop herself from crying, between her uncontrollable sobs she finally recalled the note she had somewhere in her pocket with the clothes she had on when she arrived. She started to go around the room in the dark and looked for the clothes in the cupboard she knew she had left them but the clothes were not there.

_Laundry… the servants must have taken them._

She felt hopeless. Her breathing was getting heavy and it hurt with every intake of air. She stumbled towards the hallway and hoped she would still find her belongings in one of the other rooms. She remembered how Mary's washing machine had been in the bathroom so she headed towards the closest bathroom available and hoped one of the adjoining rooms would have washing machines.

Her actions must have caused a ruckus and woken up one of the servants who came out hurriedly from a nearby room.

"Momobami-sama, is something wrong?" The servant asked quietly.

"I can't find…" Ririka sobbed quietly and took a few deep breaths before she was able to speak again. "I can't find the clothes I wore yesterday."

"The laundry room is over here, please, follow me," the servant said with a kind tone and gently guided Ririka towards a door in the far corner.

Ririka had to raise her arm on her face when the lights were flipped on, the brightness burned her eyes.

"Here, we washed everything today. I'm sorry we didn't return these back to your room yet." The servant took a pile of neatly folded clothing in her hands and held it out to Ririka.

"You—You washed it?" Ririka asked and felt her heart sink. First thought that popped to her mind was that the paper probably didn't survive the washing machine. The second was a sad feeling that her clothes wouldn't smell like Mary anymore. She started her quiet sobbing again. "I guess I deserve this, too."

Ririka leaned her back against the wall and slid down, hugged her knees and started to wail loudly.

The servant was clearly taken aback of this strange behavior and crouched carefully next to the hopeless girl.

"Is there a problem? We didn't know you didn't want your clothes washed; I apologize for—"

"No, it's my fault!" Ririka cried. "There was… something important in my pocket."

"We always check the pockets before we put the clothes in the washing machine. If you're talking about the two pieces of paper, I put them back to the pocket after wash."

Ririka raised her head and stopped crying. She grabbed the clothes and fumbled the pockets for the notes. She found both and sighed in relief. She unfolded the note Mary had given her.

_I know you must be feeling sad when you read this, but remember I'm here for you, always. Take care of yourself, you're stronger and more fearless than you give yourself credit for. I believe in you and miss you too, please come back soon. _

Ririka read the note several times before her breathing got steadier again. She noticed the servant was still standing next to her, probably feeling a bit confused about the whole situation.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late." Ririka got up on her feet and was about to leave back to her room. She stopped in the doorway and turned around. "Actually, one more thing… You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone?"

* * *

The next day Mary woke up and a quick glance at her phone displayed one unanswered call from the previous night. She was sure it had been from Ririka but had no way of confirming it. The number was of someone unknown and could not be reached when she tried calling it back. She hurriedly gathered her things and put her school uniform on, buttoning last of her shirt on her way in the elevator downstairs.

The whole way to school she wished the train would move faster, cursed every station it had to stop in. She kept trying to call the number again just to make sure, but it was still out of reach. When the train reached the station, she almost ran the whole way to school. She was way too early for there to be much students around, but that was her intention. She stayed close to the gates and waited until she saw a black town car approach. She barely waited for the President to get out of the back seat when she rushed towards her.

"Where is she?!" Mary tried to contain her anxiety but failed and the few students coming to school stopped to stare at the strange sight.

"Well, good morning to you too, Saotome-san." Kirari straightened her blazer and started walking towards the front doors with Mary on her heels.

"I don't have patience to play games with you now. Where is she?" Mary kept asking and hurried her steps to keep up with the taller girl.

"The family estate. She didn't tell you?" Kirari barely paid attention to the blonde trailing behind her.

"Well, I assumed something like that. But why?" Mary pried while they ascended the stairs to the front doors.

"Well, that's not what you asked. You asked me where she is, and I told you. Now, if you'd please let me continue with my morning tasks," Kirari said waving her hand and disappeared behind the doors.

Mary was left outside still trying to figure out if the gut feeling she had was wrong or not. The call could have been from anyone, a wrong number too. But the timing was too convenient for it to mean nothing.

"_The note,"_ Mary quietly said to herself and reached for her pocket. She found the weathered piece of paper and unfolded it impatiently. She stared at the few simple words sprawled on the paper and felt a chill run down her spine.

_I'm sorry._

The only words on the paper. Mary turned it around multiple times to see if there was more. Thoughts of various things started to run through her head of what the note could mean. She had a few wild guesses that didn't seem too wild when she remembered the family she was dealing with. If any of them were true, she knew just how horrible Ririka would be feeling about keeping them a secret. She felt a pressing pain in her chest while reading the simple words on the paper. There was no doubt now for what the call in the middle of the night was about.

Her hands trembled and she found it hard to open the door when all the strength in her muscles seemed to have drained out. She finally managed to slip through the heavy door while softly bumping into someone standing right behind it. She hoped to find a familiar face, Yumeko, or someone she could try to explain what was going on. Someone who would tell her she was worrying for nothing, who would tell her the words meant nothing as drastic as what she had in mind.

"What took you so long?" Kirari's voice rang in Mary's ears.

"No—Not you," Mary said and clutched for support from the President's shoulders.

"What are you talking about?" Kirari asked, slightly taken aback of the sudden change of mood.

Mary said nothing but stuffed the note she was holding to Kirari's hand. The blonde tried to look around if there was anything else she could support herself against but the lobby was a big empty space. The distance to the closest flight of stairs seemed too far to reach. Standing so close to the President made her feel even more uncomfortable but she had no choice but to cling on to her to keep herself standing up.

"I see… Can you walk?" Kirari asked with a tone so soft it made Mary instantly lift her gaze to check if this was indeed the twin she originally thought.

"Of course, I can walk." Mary stated matter-of-factly. Kirari chuckled and snaked her arm around Mary's waist to give support.

"Let's go here. Nobody uses these rooms in the morning." The President kept talking while slowly dragging the confused blonde closer to a long hallway with some of the club rooms.

"Wait… What are you doing?" Mary felt too weak to resist and tried her best not to trip over her own feet.

Kirari reached for the handle of the door, it was locked. She quickly found a chain of keys in her pocket and Mary counted three tries on the lock before she found the right key. She guided Mary to a small couch and went back to close the door.

"How are you feeling right now?" Kirari asked when she returned and sat next to Mary on the couch. She kept a respectable distance this time.

"Dizzy… Can't feel my legs, actually." Mary tried closing her eyes but it just intensified the spinning feeling.

"Just take a deep breath for 3 seconds, hold it for another 3 and release it after 3."

"What?" Mary looked at Kirari in disbelief.

"Trust me, it helps."

"Trust is hardly—"

"It was a figure of speech. You are having a panic attack. Take a word from someone who has lived their life with a sister with the same issues. Now. Shut up and breathe," Kirari said, calmly but she was clearly getting irritated.

Mary took a deep breath as instructed and after finally releasing it, she already felt better. She repeated it a few times and felt relatively normal again.

"So, Ririka has these too?" Mary turned to Kirari. It was more of a statement of what she had just learned so she continued when she saw the irritated look on the other girl's face. "Is that why she thinks she's weak?"

"Can't remember the last time she had one, but yes, she used to have quite a few when we were younger."

Mary had a sudden realization that there was one person in the whole world who knew everything there was to know about Ririka and she was sitting next to her. Only slight problem was the usual reluctance of this person to co-operate on anything and she knew she wouldn't get the information for free if she kept so blatantly asking questions.

"So, you saw the note, right? The thing is, I gave my phone number to Ririka that she could call me if she needed to talk to me." Mary had a short break to catch her breath again. "Someone called me last night from a strange number, I think it was her… No, I'm sure it was her. And then I read the note just now, and I just can't shake this feeling that she's not OK."

"I'm quite sure she is not." Kirari agreed.

"THEN DO SOMETHING!" Mary yelled and felt like she wanted to shake some sense into the girl sitting next to her with the eerily calm expression. "Can't you just tell her to come back or whatever?"

Kirari examined the flustered mess in front of her and sighed. "It's not so simple, Mary-san."

"Of course, it's simple! You just go and get her back. She thinks she needs to apologize for something, but I'm 100% sure she didn't do anything wrong!" Mary felt angry at the stupid family and their stupid matters.

"That's not entirely correct." Kirari added and was clearly hinting at something again.

"Enough with these fucking games, you told her not to tell me like you told me not to tell anyone else. I'm just so sick of this stupid cryptic nonsense, could you just please explain what is going on?"

"On the contrary, I asked her to tell you and she didn't. I'm _not_ the monster you think I am, she has a free will to do whatever she pleases." Kirari had a slight change of expression and Mary couldn't quite pinpoint if it was because of irritation or concern. "I'm as surprised as you are that she chose to suffer through the bothersome family obligations."

Mary tried to process the information. Something was clearly bothering Ririka during the weekend, she just assumed she _couldn't_ talk about it. She could see Kirari's possibly unintentional attempts to make Ririka look like the villain. Mary refused to believe this was a situation Ririka would want if given a real choice to decide. As to what might have been the family obligations Kirari was referring to, Mary could only guess but didn't want to jump into any conclusions.

"So, you made her choose between me and the family?" Mary asked.

"Well, no—"

"Then stop making it sound like it." Mary sighed loudly. "Could you just go and get her back here?"

"No. I think _you_ should do it," Kirari said and trailed off to her thoughts for a while. "I have only one condition."

"Great. Of course, there is a catch. What do you want?" Mary was getting annoyed.

"There is no catch." Kirari looked uncharacteristically pissed off and massaged her temples. "Seriously, you—"

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR GAMES—" Mary bellowed and stood up from the couch. Her head felt woozy from standing up too fast and she felt the room spin too fast again. To her amazement, again, Kirari got up on her feet and grabbed at her shoulders to support her.

"This is _not_ a game, Mary! Would you, please, just… shut up and listen!" Kirari raised her voice and pressed the blonde gently back on the couch. "You are lucky I've actually _seen_ how soft you are with my sister. Your attitude wouldn't get you very far with this if I hadn't…"

Mary took a few deep breaths again. When she was sure she had calmed down enough, she gave a small nod to the girl still standing in front of her.

"The thing I need to know before sending you off to wreck my sister's future and our family reputation, is that you are serious about this." Kirari said with a calmer tone.

"She's getting married, isn't she?" Mary asked quietly.

"Yes."

"And you want me to go and stop her?" Mary asked again.

"Well, not exactly. Only thing I ask, and this is the condition I will give you, make her decide on what she wants for herself_._ So, you _cannot_ ask her to do it for you and I don't want her to go through with this because she thinks it's what I want or what would be the best for the family. I know I wouldn't do it, if I were in her situation." Kirari sat on the couch and Mary noticed the usual playful glint in her eyes was gone.

"I think I understand. And I know what I need to do, just leave it to me."

Both nodded in mutual understanding. Had it not been for the delicate situation, Mary would have felt pleased with herself for guessing Kirari's motives right from the start. She clearly cared for her sister, but what seemed to be true for both siblings was that they had absolutely no idea how to deal with their feelings.

* * *

End notes:

Hah, the times I wanted to go and shake the characters for being dolts with this story! FFnet is not huge with the Kakegurui fics, so this might be the last KG fic I'm posting here. Just a heads up, I'll finish this story of course! There are a lot more KG fics in Archive of Our Own. Can recommend to check them out, not just mine. All of 'em. :3


	8. Chapter 8

Okay, here's an update after wrestling with this for a while :3 Not so much because it was hard to write, moreso because I couldn't find the time.

Hope you like it,

-Nova

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* * *

Mary sat in the small cabin of the Momobami family helicopter. The scenery had just changed from the dense city to open rural areas. She never thought to ask how long the ride would take, though she had a faint idea where the family estate was located. Seeing the landscape from above was surprisingly making it difficult to tell where they were. Spacing out in her thoughts certainly didn't help and Mary couldn't tell how long she had already been sitting there.

She knew she was not going to be angry at Ririka for anything that had been going on. She still didn't have the faintest idea why the twins had such trouble expressing their feelings. Although, admittedly both were on the different ends of the scale. But knowing they were so incapable of dealing with these things made it easier to see the reasoning as to what might have driven Ririka to just accept things as she thought they had to be.

The person who made Mary the most irritated was definitely Kirari. She was able to see the bigger picture but never told her sister her options. _That_ was what she had sent Mary to do; to give Ririka more options from which to choose from. The President of the Student Council hadn't even mentioned what kind of a situation Mary would be walking into. Her mind went through a bunch of different scenarios and she was not sure if she was ready to dash down any wedding aisles screaming her undying love for _anyone._

Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed they had started to slowly descend. The pilot hadn't said anything on their way. He seemed to be another Momobami family servant who had already gotten used to _not_ interact with the family members. Mary curiously took in the sights when they approached a green field close to what looked like a small village. Kirari hadn't been exaggerating the size of their main family estate. Mary didn't dare to even start guessing what purpose all the buildings served.

Landing itself was surprisingly soft and apart from the loud noise from the rotor blades, the whole ride had been very pleasant. The whole absurdity of the situation started to dawn on the blonde when the sounds of the engine finally died out and she realized she had been sitting still with the headset on.

"Right, uh… Thanks for the ride," Mary said while removing the headset. She tried to carefully climb out of the cabin and expected to be a bit lightheaded after the flight but was surprised to notice she wasn't the slightest. "Okay, now what?" She added quietly to herself.

She tried to look around and figure out where she was supposed to go first. All the buildings were pretty similar and finding Ririka on her own would take time. A cold sweat was creeping up on her neck. She was fumbling for her phone when she remembered she had no contact details for either of the twins. There was only the mysterious number that she had gotten a call from earlier. She tried calling the number again, but the line was still out of reach.

Without a better plan, Mary started to approach the edge of the field hoping she would run into someone and ask for directions. The whole place was eerily quiet and the only sounds she could make out were wind chimes that hung from the porch of the closest building clanging together. _What am I doing?_ Was the only thought looming in the back of Mary's head. She had gotten to the first building and was about to peek inside when she saw a woman approaching the field with hurried steps.

"Hey! Uh… Excuse me!" Mary was not sure how to address the woman. She saw the woman smile and walk towards her.

"Good morning. Are you Saotome-san?" Woman asked as if to confirm she had found what she was looking for. Mary was surprised to hear her name.

"Ah, yes. How did you know?"

"Momobami-sama contacted me an hour ago to let me know you would be arriving with the helicopter. I assume this is urgent, and my apologies if I kept you waiting for too long." The woman gave a deep bow that made Mary feel uncomfortable.

"It's fine, I just arrived. I'm looking for Ririka. Do you know where I can find her?" Mary saw the woman flinch at the informal way one of the family members had just been addressed. The whole etiquette made Mary rather uneasy to deal with and she had already decided if her brute manners were enough for Ririka, they would be enough for anyone else.

"This way, please." The woman gestured Mary to follow her down the stoned pavement. Mary was slightly relieved that the woman was not up for any chit-chat along their way past the traditional buildings.

Mary hadn't really paid much attention at first, but now that she had time to look around, she noticed the place had seen better days. The buildings were not exactly in their best state and the grass patches had been left unattended close to some of the houses. These were probably unused buildings that were no longer needed. She tried to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in a place like this.

The thought of the twins running around playing hide-and-seek and getting scolded for dirtying their knees got Mary grinning. This place must have been lively when they were young. The grin disappeared from her face when she realized it must have been quite the opposite. Based on the state that the two were in now, she would have to guess they had gone through rigorous etiquette training and denied all fun and games that didn't include gambling. Thoughts of two well-behaved kids doing their best to keep appearances made her feel anxious. No wonder Ririka was fascinated by anything remotely normal related to Mary's life. She had a sudden urge to invite Ririka for a family dinner at the Saotome house just to see how families are supposed to act around each other. Sure, her father always joked around and her mother's smothering would get her embarrassed in front of Ririka, but at least she would get to see how loving and warm it should be.

They approached one of the larger buildings and the garden spreading across the yard in front of it was in remarkably better condition than the previous ones they passed. Mary was getting more anxious as they walked to the wooden steps to a long porch then past several sliding doors before stopping in front of one. She still had no idea what was happening inside, although she was starting to doubt there being a ceremony of any kind. She tried to reason this with the day being a regular Wednesday and it was barely lunch time.

The woman who Mary had been following opened the sliding door and gave another deep bow.

"Apologies for intruding. I have brought the guest Momobami-sama asked me to escort here." The woman straightened up and excused herself walking backwards a few steps before leaving Mary standing in the doorway.

"I didn't—" Ririka's voice got caught in her throat when she turned to see who was at the door.

"I think she meant the _other_ Momobami…" Mary smirked and tried not to fumble with her words while staring at the beautiful girl in front of her. "I understand why that can get confusing though."

"The other? Kirari sent you?" Ririka looked at Mary, clearly unable to guess the purpose of the visit.

"Well, yes and no. I asked her to do something and she thought flying me here with the chopper would solve it." Mary was still trying to think of the best way to approach what she was asked to do without anything sounding like too much of an order from Kirari. "I think she mostly agrees with anything I have to say to you here."

"You two talked about me? How much did she tell you?" Ririka's chest was heaving and she was clearly fighting the urge to run to Mary's arms.

"I had a lucky guess of what is going on," Mary said and felt stupid for standing in the doorway. She left her shoes outside and closed the door behind her.

"So, you wanted to do this in person?" Ririka asked quietly and turned her gaze to the floor.

"Well, I couldn't reach you any other way. What exactly do _you_ think I'm here for?" Mary asked, even when she did have a faint idea what Ririka's mind was going through at this moment.

"To break up with me. I understand…" Ririka broke into quiet tears. "I should have told you."

"Well, that's a bit too late now. I do wish you would have told me, but your apology is accepted." Mary inched closer and placed her hand on Ririka's shoulder. "Though I'm not here to break up with you, _maybe._"

"What do you mean?" Ririka lifted her eyes to meet with Mary's and the blonde wanted to wrap her arms around the teary girl and tell her everything was going to be OK. That was not what she was there for, so she held back.

"I mean, I want to know what _you_ want to do, not what you think other people expect you to do." Mary inhaled sharply before forcing herself to say the next part aloud. "If you want to get married and support the family, I understand and will respect your decision."

"I—I don't have the option to choose, Mary. This is not what I want, but—"

"Okay, I get it. But if you could choose, what would that be?" Mary tried to get Ririka to think about her options.

"I would want to be with you, of course." Ririka was trying to hold herself together. "But I can't… and thinking about it hurts."

Mary bit her lip and continued. "So, what's stopping you?"

"I—this is the first thing I'm doing as just myself. I've covered Kirari for so many things—" Ririka stopped for a while. "Probably shouldn't talk about that… It's my turn to help the family. Kirari always does so much and I've felt like I'm good for nothing else except pretending to be her."

"Well, that's not true. You're good for many things. And just… screw this," Mary said and grabbed Ririka to a tight embrace. "You can be anything you want to be. If you want to help the family, there are many other ways to go about that and I can say for sure, Kirari _will_ understand."

"But this _is_ the thing I can do."

"Give yourself to a stranger to achieve _what_ exactly?" Mary asked, trying not to sound too bitter.

"I'm not even sure anymore…" Ririka returned the embrace and rested her head against Mary's shoulder for a while. "What did you mean Kirari will understand?"

"Oh, that… Well, she has been supportive with this, right?" Mary asked carefully since it was clear that Kirari's opinion had a big impact on Ririka's actions.

"I felt like that too, but then she told me to just pull myself together."

"Hmm… but she used those words, not 'go get married?'" Mary was curious.

"Not that I can think of, as of lately, no." Ririka lifted her head as if she had just gotten an epiphany. "So, you really think she would understand?"

"I know she would. And I'll be there to support you, if that's what you want."

The blue eyes staring up at her were framed by eyelashes that had been stuck together from recent tears she shed. Looking at Ririka's face this close also gave her the idea last night had been rough on her as well. Mary felt frustrated with all the useless pain that was caused by the absurd family that she was now dealing with.

"You would talk to Kirari with me?" Ririka seemed to be getting excited over the prospects she was finally realizing.

"I will be there to support you, but I think you should do the talking." Mary stroked Ririka's cheek affectionately. "I don't want to ask you to drop all of this for me, I just want you to be happy."

"What do _you_ want, Mary?" Ririka asked suddenly.

"Eeh? That's not—what I want has nothing to do with this…" the blonde got defensive and a blush rushed to her cheeks. She had a pretty good idea of what she wanted but the idea of expressing it out loud got her feeling self-conscious. "I came here for you. Doesn't that already tell you something?"

Ririka straightened up and hung her face close to Mary's ear. Her warm breath got the small hairs on her neck stand up. A soft chuckle escaped Ririka's throat. "It does. I would like to hear it from you too, though."

Mary shuddered from the resolve that was oozing from the words spoken by the girl she adored. She knew this was not what she came here for, but if this was what it took to get Ririka to leave with her, she wouldn't hold herself back any longer. She mustered the courage she had left and leaned against Ririka. Words escaped her mouth that she never thought she would say out loud to anyone. "I love you, Ririka."

Mary held her breath and tried to observe Ririka's reaction to her words. What she did not expect was a pair of hands cupping her face and, before she had time to register what was happening, soft lips pressed against her own. A few confused seconds later, she reciprocated and gave in to the most affectionate kiss they had shared so far. Her chest was swelling from all the anticipation of what would follow. Things she wanted to share with Ririka had never felt clearer in her head.

Had it not been the bizarre situation they were in; Mary would have gladly let things escalate wherever their feelings would have taken them. Though she did remember what she was supposed to be doing there, so she pulled away before reaching a point of no return. She let her forehead rest against Ririka's. "So, I was supposed to drag you away from here…"

Ririka hummed in quiet understanding. "Right, let me get my things and we can go."

* * *

They reached the green patch where the helicopter was still waiting. The engines weren't running, but the driver was still waiting inside. Ririka had changed into her school uniform and Mary had insisted she would carry Ririka's bag. They had barely started a conversation about the past few days when they heard a distant yell from the direction of where they had just come from. The same woman who escorted Mary earlier was trying to catch up to them.

Ririka took Mary's hand and started dragging her towards the helicopter. "RUN!"

Mary did as requested and sprinted across the grass field. The pilot was clearly awake and on top of the situation, at least to some extent. He saw the two girls running and started the engine. He made sure the two girls were seated and belted down before he took off.

They broke out into laughter once they were safely in the air. The sight of the other girl laughing so freely made Mary's chest feel warm and fuzzy. _This _was why she had decided to go and get Ririka back. Just that moment of simple laughter was all worth the trip. The rush of adrenaline was wearing off and the roar of the engine filled Mary's head, so she grabbed a two pairs of headsets and passed one over to Ririka. She was slightly surprised to hear Ririka speak so clearly over the now faint rumble.

"That was fun! Let's do that again," Ririka said with a grin.

"Riri… was that—a joke?" Mary teased over the intercom.

"Maybe."

The two kept poking fun at each other but toned it down eventually when the pilot seemed to be paying more attention to what was happening on the backseat rather than piloting the helicopter. The whole ride back seemed to go much faster and Mary got a nervous feeling in the bottom of her stomach once she noticed the buildings of the city below them. She already knew Kirari was not going to fight whatever Ririka had to say, but just the whole confrontation ahead was making her anxious.

She glanced at her phone for the first time in hours and saw the unread texts from Yumeko asking where she was. There was going to be a lot of explaining to her as well. She made a mental note to ask Ririka later if she wanted to be around when she would finally tell Yumeko everything.

"Everything OK?" Ririka asked when she noticed Mary looking at her phone.

"Yeah, just people wondering where I am."

"I'm a bit jealous, actually." Ririka sounded a bit melancholic.

"Of Yumeko?" Mary tried to hide the amusement in her tone.

"Well, no. If you say she's just a friend, I believe you. But people being worried about your whereabouts."

"Oh, that… Well, if you would just finally get a phone like a regular person, you'd know if someone was looking for you." Mary kept teasing and tried to get the other girl to cheer up.

"Would you help me choose one? I know nothing about phones," Ririka said bashfully.

"It's a date." Mary grinned.

"A _real_ date?" Ririka's expression got a lot brighter.

"Oh—sure. We could just do something nicer for a—"

"No. I want to go out on a date and pick a phone for me." Ririka was already getting excited.

Mary chuckled. "Great. A date in an appliance store. Every girl's dream."

The pilot coughed softly as if to remind the two girls he was still there before announcing their approach to Hyakkaou Academy. Mary examined Ririka who suddenly looked nervous.

"It's going to be fine. I'll be there with you, like I promised." Mary tried to sound convincing and hide her own nerves. Ririka replied with a weak smile.

After landing, they headed straight towards the Student Council Room. Mary was rather relieved that most of the students were attending classes when they marched through the hallways. Her mouth went dry as they approached the infamous room. She was not so much intimidated by Kirari, but just the notion of the matter being important to Ririka. She would fight for her rights if it came to that, which she doubted. But with Kirari one could never be sure.

They reached the end of the corridor and stood in front of the large doors. Ririka held out her hand and Mary mistook this as a sign that she wanted to hold hands. Ririka look confused for a second before correcting her. "Ah, sorry. I just need my bag now."

"Oh, right. OK…" Mary was confused as well and gave the bag back to Ririka. "Wait—why?"

"You'll see," Ririka said before inhaling deeply while opening the door.

Mary followed after her and noticed the council room was mostly empty. The only ones present seemed to be the President, Sayaka, who was seated at the long table, and Runa quietly playing her video game in a far corner. Kirari lifted her eyes from the files she had in front of her.

"So, you came back. I'm surprised." Her tone was almost mockingly blatant. She didn't sound surprised at all. Sayaka, however, looked curiously at both twins. Mary guessed that she hadn't been included in the latest events from that morning.

"I did. Can I talk with you privately?" Ririka asked, nervously glancing in Runa's direction but she still seemed to be focused on her game.

"Whatever you have to say, I would like you to say it here and not behind closed doors like a coward," Kirari said while staring Ririka with an intense gaze that would have probably gotten Mary to drop down on her knees from sheer fright had she been on the receiving end.

"Fine. Have it your way then," Ririka replied with matching intensity and Mary was not sure of whom she was more afraid of at that moment. She also noticed Runa raising her head curiously and Sayaka looked like she wanted to sink under the table to not be caught in between whatever was going on.

Ririka opened her bag and Mary realized what she had been missing this whole time; _the stupid mask._ Ririka threw it across the table in front of Kirari who didn't seem to even as much as flinch from their strange staring contest.

"I'm done being the puppet for this family." Ririka was shaking slightly and Mary approached her quietly, ready to help her if she needed it.

"I figured as much. And?" Kirari was still getting somewhere with this. Mary tried to read the situation, but any guess would have been just as wrong as the other.

"I don't want to get married. Or—" And for the first time during their heated but cold discussion, Ririka wavered for a second before she continued. "I might one day, but that'd be to Mary and no one else."

All eyes turned to Mary, that being everyone else except Ririka who might have been too embarrassed. Mary tried her best to act cool by grinning and waving to everyone awkwardly.

"Ah, yes. Don't mind me, the future wife of the Vice Prez…"

Ririka turned around with a blushing face. "Didn't mean to drag you into this, sorry."

"No, it's… okay," Mary said with a coy smile.

"Well, if that's all that you have to say—" Kirari was getting on her feet, dragging the chair loudly across the floor which caught the attention of the people in the room.

"No. That's not all." Ririka walked up to a desk situated in the far corner and started rummaging through the drawers. She apparently found what she was looking for. "I'm going to prove it to you and everyone else how sure I am of this."

Mary wasn't the first to notice what Ririka was holding, Sayaka nearly fell from her chair and Runa let out an audible '_Whoa!'_ before dropping the console in her lap. Mary's brain short-circuited for a second when she noticed the scissors Ririka was holding.

"WHAT'RE YOU—" Mary sprinted towards Ririka but slowed down when Ririka grabbed a fistful of her hair. "…Oh!"

Mary grinned wide when she realized what Ririka was doing. Everyone else stared at the bizarre scene in awe or horror. Mary wasn't sure who was feeling what, but she was all for supporting Ririka through this. When the last strands of silver hair dropped down on the floor, Ririka put away the scissors and walked up to Mary completely ignoring everyone else.

"How do you like my new hair?" Ririka was smiling sweetly with her new comically uneven haircut.

"Love it." Mary kept grinning and took Ririka's hand to her own.

Ririka turned to face her sister who was mostly eyeing them with curiosity. "I hope you accept this as my resignation from the Council. I doubt I will be of much use to you now."

Kirari merely chuckled then nodded before taking a seat to return to her work. Everyone else was still too shaken to move. It was only when Kirari lifted her gaze and looked around. "As you were. I think we're done here. Don't you two have somewhere better to be right now?" The last words were directed to Ririka and Mary.

Mary grinned and lead Ririka out of the council room. She made sure they were out of earshot before she spoke.

"Geez, didn't think you would—"

"I know! I didn't either, but when we arrived and Kirari refused to handle it nicely, I decided I would do that."

"So, you didn't actually plan all that?" Mary was curious.

"No. Feel a bit sorry for the hair, though."

"It'll grow back. And it's not _that_ different. Just a bit shorter. But we need to go to my place so I can fix it a bit, it's not even." Mary grinned while Ririka was still running her hand through her hair.

"Oh, how does it look?" Ririka kept turning her head to see what Mary meant.

"It looks like someone cut it with scissors… in the dark… maybe in their sleep?" Mary laughed when Ririka blushed and turned her gaze away. "Oh, do you mind if I ask Yumeko to fix it? She might be better at it. I would also like to tell her what's going on and have you there with me when I tell her."

Ririka nodded. "So, you two are just friends, right?"

"Just friends." Mary assured and pecked Ririka's cheek. "I'm going to text her now; she should be out of class soon."

The two girls continued down the school corridors, Ririka holding on to Mary's arm and glancing over her shoulder, curious to see what Mary was typing. Mary didn't even mind when the bell rang and students started to flood the hallway, giving them curious looks and whispering gossip. Mary could swear some of them were even taking pictures. She could care less. She had the most amazing girl hanging from her arm and she simply felt complete.

* * *

AN: So this was originally intended to be the end for this fic. But I do have stuff for 2 more chapters, as like a small bonus I guess. It will have a small time-skip tho, so be warned. Thanks for sticking with me this far and let me know what you thought about this.

Ugh, so tired.. just off to bed now. kthxbaiiiii :3

-N


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